Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

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Open Recommendations (12 total)

Blockchain in Finance: Legislative and Regulatory Actions Are Needed to Ensure Comprehensive Oversight of Crypto Assets

GAO-23-105346
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation should jointly establish or adapt an existing formal coordination mechanism with CFPB, CFTC, the Federal Reserve, NCUA, OCC, and SEC for collectively identifying risks posed by blockchain-related products and services and formulating a timely regulatory response. To facilitate these objectives, this mechanism could include formal planning documents that establish the frequency of meetings and processes for identifying risks and responding to them within agreed-upon time frames. (Recommendation 3)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
FDIC neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation. In addition, FDIC noted it has coordinated through venues including the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the President's Working Group, and some international organizations. However, the regulators' coordination efforts have not always addressed risks posed by crypto assets in a timely manner. We maintain that a formal coordination mechanism focused on collectively identifying risks posed by blockchain-related products and services and formulating timely regulatory responses could improve protections for consumers and investors, mitigate illicit finance and threats to financial stability, and promote responsible innovation and U.S. competitiveness.

Management Report: Continued Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract Documentation and Payment-Review Processes

GAO-23-106656
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Chief Risk Officer should design and implement procedures for tracking and communicating to management the status of corrective actions (e.g., for considerations, observations, or takeaways) for contract monitoring reviews and testing that the Office of Risk Management and Internal Controls performs until FDIC fully implements corrective actions. (Recommendation 2)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In its written comments on our draft report, FDIC acknowledged our findings and provided planned corrective actions to address our recommendations. FDIC stated it will use its Audit Report Tracking System to track and periodically communicate to management the status of corrective actions for contract monitoring reviews and testing performed until risks in this area are mitigated. We will continue to monitor FDIC efforts to address this recommendation.

Management Report: Continued Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract Documentation and Payment-Review Processes

GAO-23-106656
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Deputy Director of the Acquisition Services Branch of the Division of Administration should update FDIC's existing policies and procedures to prohibit contracting officers and oversight managers from using hard drives to store and maintain contract documentation, in order to mitigate the risk of losing documentation and making improper payments. (Recommendation 3)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In its written comments on our draft report, FDIC acknowledged our findings and provided planned corrective actions to address our recommendations. FDIC stated it will update existing policies and procedures to clarify final contractual documentation requirements. We will continue to monitor FDIC efforts to address this recommendation.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Deputy Director of the Acquisition Services Branch of the Division of Administration should design and implement a policy that (1) requires all oversight managers and contracting officers from all divisions to routinely take mandatory training in order to review and enhance their awareness of the existing policies and procedures for contract documentation and payment-review processes and (2) includes an established process for routinely tracking the completion of such training. (Recommendation 1)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In its written comments on our draft report, FDIC acknowledged our findings and provided planned corrective actions to address our recommendations. FDIC stated it will review and update existing policy related to mandatory training for contracting officers and oversight managers and require annual refresher training. It also stated it will use automated capabilities to track training completion. We will continue to monitor FDIC efforts to address this recommendation.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Deputy Director of the Acquisition Services Branch of the Division of Administration should update FDIC's existing policies and procedures to define acceptable time frames for uploading contract documentation to a centralized location in order to reasonably assure that contracting officers and oversight managers properly document and support contracts in a timely manner. (Recommendation 4)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In its written comments on our draft report, FDIC acknowledged our findings and provided planned corrective actions to address our recommendations. FDIC stated it reviewed its policies and procedures and determined that the time frames were acceptable and appropriate. However, our review of FDIC's policy found that it does not provide clear time frames for uploading contract documentation to a centralized location. It also stated that it issued a new Quality Assurance process in April 2023, which implements more detailed reviews of contract documentation and the timely storage of contract documentation. We will continue to monitor FDIC efforts to address this recommendation.

Management Report: Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract Documentation and Payment-Review Processes

GAO-22-105824
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Deputy Director of the Acquisition Services Branch of the Division of Administration should establish a process to periodically monitor the operating effectiveness of existing policies and procedures to reasonably assure that contracting officers sufficiently and accurately follow existing policies and procedures for contracts. (Recommendation 2)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In commenting on our draft report, FDIC concurred with this recommendation. During calendar year 2022, FDIC informed us of certain corrective actions planned, including hiring an individual for a quality assurance role who would lead and perform monitoring duties related to ensuring adherence to FDIC's policies and procedures for contracts. FDIC is continuing to implement corrective actions to address this recommendation. We will evaluate these efforts during our audit of FDIC's 2023 financial statements.

Banking Services: Regulators Have Taken Actions to Increase Access, but Measurement of Actions' Effectiveness Could Be Improved

GAO-22-104468
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Chairman of FDIC should develop and implement outcome-oriented performance measures for its strategic objective of ensuring access to safe and affordable bank services that reflect leading practices, including demonstrating results, measuring outcomes, and providing useful information for decision-making. (Recommendation 1)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Open Data: Additional Action Required for Full Public Access

GAO-22-104574
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Chairman of FDIC should, in coordination with the Chief Data Officer of FDIC, develop and implement an agency-wide plan to collect and publish information on the use of data assets by nongovernmental entities at least once a year. (Recommendation 9)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In July 2023, FDIC officials told us that by 12/31/23, FDIC plans to develop and implement an agency-wide strategy to collect and publish information on the use of data assets by nongovernmental entities at least once a year. We will continue to monitor FDIC's efforts to address this recommendation.

Management Report: Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract-Payment Review Processes

GAO-21-420R
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Chief Risk Officer should establish a process to coordinate with the Division of Administration and the Division of Finance, as appropriate, to periodically train, monitor, and ensure that oversight managers and processing approvers sufficiently and accurately follow FDIC's existing policies and procedures for contract payments. (Recommendation 2)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In commenting on our draft report, FDIC concurred with this recommendation and stated that the Chief Risk Officer convened an interdivisional working group of key stakeholders to strengthen the FDIC's contract oversight management. During calendar year 2021, FDIC began implementing additional training and developing a monitoring process to conduct transaction testing of contract-related expense transactions. During calendar year 2022, FDIC continued conducting this transaction testing and began implementing a monitoring process, which includes vertical reviews of contract documentation. FDIC is continuing to implement corrective actions to address this recommendation. As a result, this recommendation remains open as of December 31, 2022.

Bank Supervision: FDIC Could Better Address Regulatory Capture Risks

GAO-20-519
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Division Director for Risk Management Supervision (RMS) should require case managers to document how high-risk areas in the scoping plan were considered by the examination team if they were not addressed in the examination report. (Recommendation 1)
Open

 Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned.
In November 2021, FDIC officials provided documentation of examination policies they updated in March 2021 to require that examiners-in-charge discuss proposed changes to the examination scope with their manager and obtain concurrence for any material changes in the examination scope. Although this policy change likely would improve management's control over changes to scoping plans, it would not necessarily create better documentation to track how FDIC's case managers reviewed whether the work described in the scoping plan was appropriately evaluated and documented by the examination team. As we said in our report, if case managers documented that examination procedures for areas not discussed in the examination report were assessed and that examiners' conclusions about these areas were well supported, RMS management would have better assurance that case managers were monitoring examination teams' procedures and conclusions for all planned aspects of the examination. We continue to believe that RMS management could better assure the effectiveness of the case-manager review process by implementing a requirement for case managers to review and document how all elements of the examination scope-including those not discussed in the report of examination-were addressed by the examination team.
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