Jelena McWilliams said federal bank regulators could begin "within a week or so" to discuss a draft proposal for reforming the Community Reinvestment Act.
The nation's fifth-largest bank on Monday rolled out a three-month consumer loan that is far less expensive than the typical payday loan. The move comes as regulators are encouraging banks to reach out to the subprime market, which they largely abandoned.
The agency's bulletin opens the door to banks' making more short-term loans to borrowers with lower credit scores — with few parameters beyond "sound underwriting."
Just as promised, Republican lawmakers went to work Wednesday considering regulatory reform ideas that would go further than the Senate's tweaks of the Dodd-Frank Act.
The nomination of Jelena McWilliams to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. moves the Trump administration one step closer to completing its team of regulatory appointments in its push to undo former President Obama's post-crisis policies.
Fifth Third, U.S. Bancorp and others aim to design a short-term credit product that would satisfy their various regulators, but exactly how and how quickly they should go about it is murky at this point.
The world of short-term lending was shaken up Thursday as one regulator issued a rule cracking down on payday loans while another made it easier for banks to offer an alternative product.
