Comments due in November on FDIC proposed MDI policy statement revisions

A proposal revising the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) statement of policy on minority depository institutions (MDIs) made it into the Federal Register Friday and is out for comment until Nov. 24.

The FDIC issued its policy statement in 1990 to reflect goals set in the 1989 Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) for encouraging, assisting, and preserving minority depository institutions and has tweaked that statement in the years since. The current proposed revisions address the following areas:

  • Technical assistance and other engagement: The proposal clarifies that technical assistance is not a supervisory activity and is not intended to present additional regulatory burden; and states that examination teams will not view requests for, or acceptance of, technical assistance negatively when evaluating institution performance or assigning ratings.
  • FDIC outreach: The proposal updates the statement to provide additional outreach opportunities, including with the FDIC chairman’s office and the National Director for Minority and Community Development Banking.
  • MDI Subcommittee: The proposal describes the newly established FDIC MDI Subcommittee of the CBAC, which serves as source of feedback on FDIC strategies to fulfill statutory goals to preserve and promote MDIs.

The proposed revisions were approved by the FDIC Board Aug. 21, according to the Register notice; they were announced Aug. 24.

Reg lookup: Statement of Policy Regarding Minority Depository Institutions