In January of 2025, the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) underwent a leadership change with Travis Hill taking over as Acting Chairman. This departure from the previous regulatory approach has focused more on boosting innovation, modernizing supervision, and promoting further economic growth.

But what does this mean for your financial institution? Take a look at some of the FDIC’s priorities for 2025 as we move into planning strategies for 2026.

Banks are operating according to streamlined FDIC 2025 regulations

A Growth Mindset

Rather than keeping all the weight on broad compliance and process-focused oversight, the FDIC is taking more balanced outlook. This has resulted in a reduction in unnecessary regulatory burdens.

The agency has begun a review of all regulations, guidance, and supervisory manuals. This review also includes controversial proposals from prior years, such as the 2024 brokered deposits proposal. This has been to do away with any requirements that are overly demanding (but do not impact financial stability).

Renewed Supervisory Framework

There are a few important supervisory reforms that the FDIC has made this year. In a step away from a simple checklist approach, the agency has adjusted the continuous examination program. The threshold here has been raised from $10 billion to $30 billion in assets, so fewer financial institutions will endure continuous oversight.

There has also been a push for a higher standard when it comes to issuing Matters Requiring Attention (MRAs) and enforcement actions in the regulatory process. The result is that the agency will need to show that the bank’s capital, asset quality, earnings, or liquidity could be impacted before any action is taken.

The process for supervisory appeals and extensions for consumer compliance examinations will now also be much simpler for smaller financial institutions. The result has been a reduction in regulatory burden for community banks.

Modernizing Standards and Requirements

A pivotal FDIC 2025 modification was proposed in June. This move by the agency sought to leverage capital standards to reduce disincentives for engaging in lower risk activities for the largest US banks.

The FDIC has also updated regulatory thresholds to reflect historical inflation, allowing a guideline for future indexing adjustments. This ensures that these thresholds stay relevant over time without impacting policy. See our blog on how to achieve better policy and procedure management for further information.

Moving Towards Digital Assets

There has been a shift in policy regarding the FDIC’s attitude towards digital assets and blockchain technology. The change has provided more freedom for banks to engage in crypto-related transactions without needing prior approval from the agency.

This being said, all banking institutions are expected to adhere to applicable laws when engaging in crypto activities, taking note of risks related to:

  • Market
  • Liquidity
  • Operations
  • Cybersecurity
  • Compliance

This is the first step in the agency’s longer-term plan to issue further guidance on specific crypto-related activities.

Refreshed Resolution Planning

Part of the FDIC 2025 approach affected large banking institutions in terms of their requirements for resolution planning. In the place of hypothetical failure scenarios, the agency has opted to gather information needed to step in and operate the institution for a short period, if deemed necessary.

Taking costly bank failures from 2023 into account, the FDIC has also enhanced its requirements for submitting resolution filings. Banking institutions with $50 billion in assets will submit periodic plans while those worth $100 billion or more are required to submit full plans.

Implications for Banks Going into 2026

The FDIC 2025 outlook for banks has shown that 2026 will continue to bring change for banking institutions. An increased emphasis on material financial risks over process-related compliance issues has been a key theme but expectations for the remainder of the year and next year include:

  • Elevated thresholds, simplified examinations and review extensions for community banks.
  • A more receptive response from regulators to banks engaged in fintech partnerships, or other kinds of digital innovation.
  • Possible changes in supervisory standards, with changes in enforcement frequency and the nature of examination findings.

The FDIC’s 2025 agenda, through their new Acting Chairman, has helped to reshape the relationship between regulatory compliance and banks of all sizes. Banks that have taken these changes on board and adapted to new approaches will see themselves in a more favourable position come 2026.

However, these observations are subject to change, and we recommend monitoring the Federal Register for all final rules on proposed changes to capital and supervisory standards, along with deadlines for implementation.