Donald Trump Advisers Eye Bank Regulator Consolidation

Trump administration officials are discussing plans to curtail and combine the power of banking regulators—without Congress’s input.

- Gina Heeb, Brian Schwartz & Annamaria Andriotis

In recent discussions, Trump advisers and allies have examined whether it is possible to collapse the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. into the Treasury Department, according to people familiar with the matter. They have also discussed combining the FDIC’s regulatory role with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under Treasury.

The Trump administration has already taken aim at one financial regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Trump over the weekend installed Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, as acting head of the CFPB.

Alongside the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, Vought moved at breakneck speed to close the CFPB headquarters and order staff to halt work.

Tuesday evening, Trump nominated Jonathan Gould, a former OCC official, to run the OCC and Jonathan McKernan, who had been at the FDIC until this week, to run CFPB.

Staff inside the FDIC and the OCC expect to hear from DOGE soon, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussions on how to shrink, consolidate, or even eliminate the bank regulators have been underway since at least late last year,