The U.S. Senate Banking Committee advanced the confirmation process for acting Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Travil Hill on Wednesday, holding a final vote in the expanded Senate to potentially make Hill the permanent head of the banking agency that plays an ongoing role in overseeing the crypto sector.
Senators voted along party lines 13-11 to report Hill’s nomination “favorably” to the Senate during an executive session of the committee. If confirmed by the Senate, President Donald Trump will see another of his nominees ascend to the helm of a financial agency – a regulator that has had a significant impact on the health of crypto businesses in the United States.
The FDIC, one of the three main US banking regulators, has played a central role in the “debanking” controversy in which the crypto industry accuses regulators of pressuring banks to cut ties with digital asset companies and their executives. Hill has personally recognized the situation and sought to reverse it since leading the FDIC as acting chairman.
On Wednesday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said Hill — a former staffer on that committee — was “more than qualified for this important role.” But Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the panel, criticized Hill for what she described as a failure to provide requested information about the agency’s internal efforts to address the workplace conduct and culture scandal that erupted under her previous leadership.
In his first weeks leading the agency, Hill rolled back previous guidelines that made it difficult for bankers to engage in crypto activities. He maintained a pro-crypto stance during his time there, and he helped Coinbase in its campaign to expose communications between the FDIC and banks regarding blocking new digital asset activity.
While Trump had made relatively quick efforts to secure a friendly leader at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins, his nominees for other agencies have not always been confirmed as quickly. Among banking regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency actually named a new leader in July with the confirmation of Jonathan Gould. But the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has run into confirmation drama, and the FDIC is nearing the end of its administration’s first year without a permanent chair.
Read more: Trump picks Travis Hill as official to lead FDIC
