As Jelena McWilliams prepares to leave office after an eventful three and a half years as FDIC chairman, she sat down with the ABA Banking Journal for a conversation on her tenure at the agency. While 2018 wasn’t that long ago, it feels worlds away—in terms of the time-is-a-flat-circle nature of the pandemic, but also in the landscape of bank innovation and racial justice.

In part one of this two-part interview, McWilliams discusses:

• Where bank innovation stands in 2022 and how initiatives like FDITech are shaping the policy framework for innovation.
• Early results from FDITech initiatives around real-time data reporting and third-party due diligence.
• The agency's progress on standing up a standard-setting organization that can streamline vendor risk management and “challeng[e] core processors” to be more agile.
• The future of remote versus on-site FDIC exams in the post-COVID environment.
• A behind-the-scenes look at how the FDIC responded to the early days of the pandemic, including issuing guidance on troubled debt restructurings.