Trump Appointee Resigns After Fight With Democratic Bank Regulators

The Republican chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Friday that she was cutting short her term after clashing with Democratic banking regulators.

Jelena McWilliams, who was appointed by then-President Donald J. Trump to a five-year term as chair in June 2018, will resign effective Feb. 4, she said. She wrote in a letter to President Biden that she was also stepping down as a director of the F.D.I.C.’s board. Her departure adds a second vacancy to the five-member board.

“Throughout my tenure, the agency has focused on its fundamental mission to maintain and instill confidence in our banking system,” she wrote. “Today, banks continue to maintain robust capital and liquidity levels to support lending and protect against potential losses.”

Her exit came after Rohit Chopra, a member of the F.D.I.C. board and the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, complained this month that Ms. McWilliams had refused to recognize attempts by Democratic regulators to review rules about bank mergers. Ms. McWilliams called the conflict a “hostile takeover” by other board members in an essay in The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. McWilliams has mostly adhered to Republican ideological lines during her tenure. That makes her something of a barrier to President Biden’s agenda, which involves shifting the federal government’s stance on big issues like climate change and income inequality.