Holding Financial Regulators Accountable for Diversity and Inclusion:...(EventID=110976)

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Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinancialCmte Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Tuesday, September 8, 2020, from 12:00 p.m. (ET) Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion Chairwoman Beatty and Ranking Member Wagner will host a virtual hearing entitled, “Holding Financial Regulators Accountable for Diversity and Inclusion: Perspectives from the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion.” - - - - - - - - The witnesses for this two-panel hearing are: Panel 1: • Joyce Cofield, Executive Director, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI), Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) • Sheila Clark, Director, OMWI, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) • Lacey Dingman, Director, OMWI, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) • Nikita Pearson, Acting Director, OMWI, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) • Monica Davy, Director, OMWI, National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Panel 2: • Lorraine Cole, Director, OMWI, U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) • Pamela Gibbs, Director, OMWI, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) • Sharron Levine, Director, OMWI, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) • Lora McCray, Director, OMWI, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Purpose This hearing will examine the role of the OMWIs in tracking diversity and inclusion performance inside their respective agencies and among their regulated entities, and discuss legislation to improve the diversity and inclusion performance of the financial regulators and their regulated entities. Background Section 342 of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) established OMWIs in most of the federal financial regulatory agencies, specifically within Treasury, FDIC, the Federal Reserve, each of the 12 Federal Reserve banks (e.g. FRBNY), NCUA, OCC, SEC, CFPB and FHFA. Section 1116 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 directed that FHFA’s regulated entities establish an office for diversity and inclusion or its functional equivalent. OMWIs are responsible for all matters relating to diversity in management, employment, and business activities inside their respective organizations, as well as oversight of those efforts among their regulated entities. OMWIs are also required to report annually to Congress on the diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts of their respective agencies and regulated entities. According to a 2020 review of annual OMWI reports by the Greenlining Institute, “These annual reports are the only public resource that benchmark how financial agencies proactively integrate diversity and inclusion into their workforce and supply chains.” Financial Regulatory Agencies Lack Diversity at the Highest Levels, Including their Boards and Advisory Committees Similar to diversity statistics across the financial services industry, federal financial regulatory agencies lack diversity at the highest levels, including their boards and advisory committees. For example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that “racial [and] ethnic minorities have limited representation in board leadership positions” among Federal Home Loan Banks. Although the Federal Reserve System was established in 1913,6 it would be more than a century later before the first African American and openly gay man would be appointed as a Federal Reserve bank president and chief executive officer. In September 2019, the House of Representatives passed legislation sponsored by Chair Beatty of the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion requiring that future candidate slates for Federal Reserve Bank presidents include persons reflective of gender, racial, and ethnic diversity. Since the New Deal, Black people have been excluded from nominations and appointments at financial regulatory agencies, according to a July 2020 report on the historical lack of Black appointees at those agencies. The report concludes that among the 327 individuals that have been appointed to financial regulatory agencies, only 10 have been Black.10 Moreover, the report states that: [Financial regulators] are responsible for framing policies that determine how trillions of dollars in U.S. assets are regulated, how capital is allocated in society, and at what cost. The absence of African Americans deprives the community from having members present in decisions that not only impact them directly, but are often made in their name. In a January 2020 letter, Chairwoman Waters and Chair Beatty called out the lack of diversity on SEC’s advisory committees and noted that the formation of SEC’s Asset Management Advisory Committee was a missed opportunity to “approve a diverse slate of members.” Their... Hearing page: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=406865