More regular and informal meetings between banks and regulators to discuss operations and emerging risks could reduce the need for cumbersome quarterly reporting, FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said.
Speaking at a Fed conference on bank supervision, McWilliams said this "continuous engagement"—which the FDIC is exploring through its FDiTech initiative—wouldn't mean real-time monitoring of community banks, which would be a waste of FDIC resources.
Rather, informal engagements that use technology to provide a dashboard of an institution's financial health could be a substitute for the call report and dramatically reduce the burdens of on-site exams, helping community banks into the future, she said.