Feedback from banks and thrifts on the federal bank deposit insurer’s supervisory approach to examinations during the COVID-19 pandemic is sought in a request for information (RFI) noted Friday in an agency Financial Institution Letter (FIL).
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is welcoming all feedback, but it suggests that respondents address nine specific questions in its RFI that focus on the agency’s on-site and off-site activities, its use of technology, and its communication methods.
“For a number of years prior to the pandemic, the FDIC had been leveraging technology advances to allow examiners to conduct off-site certain examination functions that were previously performed on-site,” the agency said in FIL-56-2021. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, examiners have continued the FDIC examination program despite pandemic conditions, in part by leveraging prior efforts and existing technology systems.”
The questions in the RFI seek responses on matters such as exam activities that have been best adapted to completion on an off-site basis, and which have not; which technologies have been used well and which could be improved; and, among other things, whether the agency should continue to use secure email as an alternative to hardcopy mail (including when providing outgoing supervisory correspondence).
Responses are due to the FDIC by Oct. 12. The full RFI is attached to the letter and was published in Thursday’s Federal Register.