The U.S. Senate Banking Committee advanced Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Acting Chairman Travil Hill’s confirmation process on Wednesday, setting up a final vote in the wider Senate to potentially make Hill the permanent head of the banking agency that has 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 the Senate confirms him, President Donald Trump will see another of his nominees ascend to the helm of a financial agency — a regulator that’s had a significant impact on the health of crypto businesses in the U.S.
The FDIC, one of three main U.S. banking regulators, had a central role in the “debanking” controversy in which the crypto industry blames the regulators for pressuring banks to sever ties with digital assets businesses and their leaders. Hill has personally acknowledged the situation and sought to reverse it in the time he’s run the FDIC as its interim chairman.
On Wednesday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said Hill — a former staff member on that committee — is “more than qualified for this important role.” But the panel’s ranking Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren, criticized Hill for what she described as a failure to provide requested information on the agency’s internal efforts to remedy the scandal in workplace conduct and culture that erupted under its previous leadership.
In his first weeks leading the agency, Hill reversed earlier guidance that had made it difficult for bankers to engage in crypto activity. He’s maintained a pro-crypto stance in his time there, and he aided Coinbase in its campaign to reveal communications between the FDIC and banks about blocking new digital assets business.
While Trump had made a relatively rapid push to ensure a friendly leader at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins, his nominees for other agencies haven’t always been confirmed as quickly. Among banking regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency did get a new chief in July with the confirmation of Jonathan Gould. But the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ran into a confirmation drama, and the FDIC is approaching the end of the administration’s first year without a permanent chairman.
Read More: Trump Makes Travis Hill Pick Official as Choice to Run FDIC