After years of acrimony, the nation’s top banking regulators are seeking a detente with the firms they oversee. Two Trump-appointed officials have spent several months touring the country, visiting bank examiners in regional offices and asking them to adopt a less-aggressive tone when flagging risky practices and pressing firms to change their behavior.
- The Federal Reserve’s Randal Quarles and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Jelena McWilliams aim to change policy in a subtle but significant way and reshape regulators’ relationship with banks, which officials have said was too contentious during the Obama years that followed the financial crisis.
- Critics say friendlier examiners could blunt the effect of postcrisis rules, giving banks more freedom to engage in riskier practices.