Transcripts For CSPAN2 Financial Regulators Testify On Impact Of Regulations On Diversity And... 20240712

Are authorized to participate. Even when they are not recognized and that they are responsible and then to convince themselves after they finished speaking consistent with the regulations and only is appropriate. All house rules related to order and decorum applied to this remote hearing. To hold financial regulators tyaccountable and in conclusion perspective from the offices of minority and women inclusion. I now recognize myself or four minutes to give an opening statement. Todays hearing focus Holding Financial regulators accountable with diversity and inclusion. Our country is facing covid19 and an economic pandemic and the fight for social justice. These challenges have reached our personal relationship in the unprecedentedys way. I appreciate all the witnesses i am hopeful we will be able to strike a balance between Historical Context with the demand of greater industry inclusiveness and transparency and accomplishment 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of the dodd frank reform act. Chairwoman Maxine Waters from the Democratic Caucus and one of the stakeholders section 342 of dodd frank would provide as a catalyst. And prior to the enactment the Financial Services stakeholders have access to performance data and in the financial crisis of 2008 disproportionately impacted low income americans and communities of color. Congress recognizes the diverse role it plays to help prevent the abusive and discriminatory practices that stop the crisis from happening again. 116th congress i along with my colleagues that all diversity and inclusion is essential to buy gap it brings new life into the Financial Institutions to evaluate and access with inclusiveness. And without recent analysis of the diversity of a Regulatory Agency. Appoints to systemic racism in our inclusiveness contrary to President Trumps comments. Systemic racism is a National Crisis that diversity community. In june Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged discrimination exist in the united te states and that the access managers who contract is the pandemic relief efforts mostly that performance requirements those to discuss and share to improve the workplace we are eager to hear from you with transparency are critical to achieving sustainable performance. With each of the Agency Directors with diversity and inclusion performance. And the agency and regulated entity with a letter and spirit of god dodd frank and with that conclusion the chair now recognizes the Ranking Member congresswoman wagner for five minutes. Its good to see you and most of the committee here today. I appreciate you holding the hearing and thank you to all the witnesses for testifying today. We look forward those have been successfully diversifying the workforce of financialal regulators. On the benefits of ae Diverse Workforce those those that are more innovative. And that is the best interest to higher to create the inclusion and federal agencies like the private sector to realize many benefits as a federal agency may be able to increase recruitment as equally as important to focus efforts to make sure the environment is included to fully realize the benefits of a Diverse Workforce. And to retain the rate of retention and with that development and this requires a pronounced equipment and action plan to increase inclusion and should be implemented from the top down to have buyin at all levels of management the prime example and the testimony she meets regularly with acting contrary theres an agency and the Senior Management to ensure the occ fulfills its commitment to diversity andei inclusion. And at the senior level to make a big difference and to have constant communication with the ceo that fosters a strong relate on commitment to retainsu and promote minorities and women those are wellestablished in thed private sector a set of best practices to recruit and retain a Diverse Workforce and prioritize inclusion. Federal agencies would also benefit to implement the strategies. Some of the best practices we have learned about to improve the inclusivity of a workplace with Financial Literacy training and transparency with salaries and promotion opportunities. Mentoring and sponsorship programs with unconscious bias training and Flexible Work hours for working mothers. Our goal to be identified as a successful strategy to recruit and retain minorities and women and how the Government Agencies can better implement within those structures. I am proud of this committee to examine these important issues. I yield back. We now recognize the chair of the full committee the gentlewoman from california congresswoman Maxine Waters. Thank you very much. And with that hearing today with the office of inclusion of a Regulatory Agency toci discuss progress with their diversity and inclusion. Ten years ago to create that champion and watchdog for the Financial Services entity and with those protest across the country to call for systemic racism this hearing is long overdue thank you for the work you have been doing ever since you have been elected to office you have taken on this responsibility. And then to remove systemic racial bias to ensure the American Economy is improving. Thank you to our chairwoman. Today we welcome the testimony of nine witnesses divided into two panels. Coming to focus on the banking regulators. The executive director inclusion of the comptroller. Sheila clark is the director of office of minority women inclusion of the board of governors of the federal reserv reserve. The Director Office of minority of women inclusion of the Federal Reserve bank of new yor york. And from the fdic and the Director Office of minority and women inclusion of the National Credit union administration. The oral testimony is limited to five minutes. Please respect the members and other witnesses time by wrapping up oral testimony. You are now recognized for five minutes to give an oral presentation of your testimony. Chairwoman and members of the subcommittee i serve as executive director of the office of minority of women inclusion from the comptroller. And with that commitment to diversity and inclusion established in 2010 and those to share ate commitment with diversity and inclusion with the acting comptroller the occ is dedicated to maintain a Diverse Workforce with the commitment in the proven strategy for diverse workplace with that competency pipeline in the strategy and to employ differences and the culture thatre respects value acting comptroller and with this mmcommitment with that Diversity Program and how additionally with that initiative launch project with the executing projects to reduce barriers to the full and fair participation and expand access to the underserved communities to ensure occ hires a Growth Management to have Detailed Analysis twice a year totr facilitate the integration of diversity and inclusion. With hiring and promotion and employee development. And to expand to 200 colleges and universities and historically black colleges and universities and those with large female student populations to participate in the professional organizations posting more than 100 minority students despite limitations from the coronavirus many positive experiences. With the developmental opportunity to support the efforts by focused diversity inclusive training of course women in leadership. And with the leadership and exploration programs in the first half 50 percent female 18 percent black 12 percent hispanic. I am proud over the last ten years all of those contracts had gone to minority and women owned businesses working closely and finally these efforts to collect data from the diversity of the pink of the banks we supervise. With thats occ to increase awareness to diversity. This year the banks will return and i thank you for the opportunity. And to giveur an oral presentation on your testimony. Members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the Important Role of the Federal Reserve board it is deeply committed with the workforce. And to make the best decision to advance the Federal Reserves mission the board establishes including january 2011 for diversity and inclusion into the Financial Services industry i work closely throughout the board at the 12 reserve banks to recognize these important issues is shared by the banks and their leadership so the equal Employment Opportunity policy and program so the office of minority and inclusion section 342 of the dodd frank act the procedures and initiatives to ensureus fair inclusion of minorities, and women owned businesses with all activities of the board with those policies and practices. And then to outline those challenges i will highlight key areas of this report increasing the level of diversity and in 2196 female divisional directors one is africanamerican. Those that were male but in addition three africanamericans and one hispanic and those that served as deputy directors and then to engage in the division of progress against the board Diversity Inclusion standards we will continue to adjust challenges with major Job Functions and in the pipelines. The federall reserve system racial ethnic and sectarian old diversity they sponsor more effectively even they constitute to encourage a variety of diverse and 2020 those that were appointed to represent the public in those class b directors for race and ethnicity and gender and those inclusion of minority owned and women owned businesses in that process said for example 2019 contracted awarded to minority and women owned businesses increased in 2019 due in part to engagement focusing on minority and women ipowned businesses and also creating a database to ensure the capabilities that meet our needs and in addition we align businesses a with subcontracting activities so with a wide range to increase Financial Literacy to help students for economic and with those to the board Federal Reserve outreach programso and also to participate in the economic us to Seek Association Summer Program hosted by Howard University 2021 through 2025 this is discussed in the in your report those we regulate to provide information and then to facilitate greater participation we appreciate the subcommittees interest in our work and we look forward to work with you to continue to advance ill be glad to answer any questions. You are recognized for five minutes for your presentation. Chief Human Resources officer and director at the new york fed my pronouns are she, hers and her. Thank you for including the Federal Reserve bank of new york racism persist and continues to hinder advancement for too Many Americans the economic equality is a critical component for social justice in the inclusive economy i am proud and empowered to be the director of an institution dedicated to understanding and finding solutions to the inequality and inequity of the Federal Reserve and the economy at large a commitment to advancing women and minority commit communities through the inclusion of the new york fed we start with people more than exemplary employees at the new york fed the recruitment efforts provide the opportunity 41 percent of new hires and those of whom 50 percent are minority a diverse class 50 percent are minorities themselves. Board of directors as of 2019 and the Leadership Team those that include 36 percent minorities and 45 percent female we know the needs of women and minorities are better served when decisionmaking includes them at the table and we will continue our efforts to exemplify the Leadership Team representative of the. Opulation we serve beyond the talented Employee Base those that conducted business with the new york fed we recently operation those facilities by the Federal Reserve board to support within the wake of the pandemic the National Association of Security Professionals working to diversify relationships also the open Market Operations that are unique im excited to tell you we will be announcing new counterparty relationships including minority women and veteran owned firms we deploy considerable resources when it comes to identifying economic inequities and just as important to identify opportunities to bridge these gaps. Soso proud what my colleagues have brought to bear. This work is only increased in dedication since the pandemic struck we helped identify and support the Federal Reserve system responsive to Workforce Development needs and challenges and those across a variety ofon issues for solutions for the most Vulnerable Community reflecting advancing our commitment the Caucus Foundation what aaron segment on economic recovery featuring John Williams and your colleagues. I have highlighted is a fraction of the Progress Provisions those to make thatat area of women and minority inclusion to acknowledge a progress there is a long waylo to go we are steadfast with our commitment for more equitable economy and society for all to redouble our efforts that i am confident and determined providing with the tools to make a difference and enhance the experience all those who work at the new york fed thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today i welcome your questions. Thank you very much you are now recognized to give an oral presentation on your testimony. Chairman and Ranking Member and members of the t subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to testify. Two weeks ago i became acting director of the office of minority and women inclusion at fdic. Before i discuss this important work i would like to explain why this is not just another job for me. Was a young black girl growing ckirup in georgia and when i was older i remember going with my mother to the same bank watching tears rolled down her face as a loan officer disrespectfully denied her loan application i knew what i was witnessing was wrong they trusted the keys to my bank would not give to my mother. This was just one experience that came to mind when recruiters came to the university historically black and spoke to my class about the mission of theth fdic. Now is a 22 year veteran of the agency i understand the progress the fdic has made on Diversity Inclusion as well as chthe challenges upon the arrival of the chairman she made the value and expectations clear. We will not tolerate discrimination. We will assure the Banking System is safe and inclusive we will recruit and retain and advance a Diverse Workforce so with these goals in mind we have implemented several initiatives to advance diversity and inclusion in the workforce and business and the banks we regulate while we have greater detail there are several missions we have taken i would like to highlight. Special emphasis on the Largest Group of employees make up 50 percent of the workforce to occupy significant number of leadership positions across the agency to promote diversity we must focus the ability to attract and retain a workforce is a number of factors in travel and infrastructure in the impact of low turnover i have seen all of these challenges firsthand the fdic has taken steps to address these issues and create the executive Level Task Force to prove that we are seeing inclusion it is now more efficient we have targeted outreach to hcb you to have a more diverse pipeline we are using technologygy to cut the time we are expanding and have improved Workplace Benefits by adding paid parental leave with the Repayment Program these initiatives have proven successful approximately 33 percent has been minority with decades long with that current representation rates the agency has increased diversity across Management Level positions in the chairman senior Leadership Team beyond the workforce we have also diversified our supply chain to provide opportunities for minorities and women ownedd businesses the fdic awarded 35 percent of all new awards to minority and women owned businesses paying 11 million to minority and million on womenowned law firms alsoso Diversity Inclusion encouraging fdic to report on diversity and have taken numerous steps to make it easier to follow their annual f report we are sharing our findings on our website and we have promoted best practices for diversity and inclusion gre fdic has made Good Progress with these and other areas including support for minority institutions to promote Financial Inclusion and we also know our work is far from complete chairman williams is deeply committed to this effort and i am honored to serve as the director at this critical time thank you again for the opportunity to testify i look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. You are now recognized for five minutes to give an oral presentation on your testimony. Good morning chairwoman and Ranking Member and chairwoman waters and members of the subcommittee thank you for this opportunity. Im looking forward to sharing with you our efforts to ensure we remain an agency where diversity and equity and inclusion that are often referred to as a part of who we are and how we do business. The act designates the chairman as the spokesperson for the board and as the agencys representative in all official relations with branches of government im here today is my official capacity to testify on agency policy. Is a catalyst for space we are proud of the progress we have made over the last decade. However this takes long time dedication and commitment we are fortunate to have leaders who are passionate the current chairman of Board Members not just individually committed but collectively strong and unwavering in their support. Each has a copy of the 2019 s o19 today iress would like to highlight three key messages. First it is committed to promoting diversity equity and inclusion within the credit nysunion system second to take concrete steps to have key indicators within the Credit Union System. Third the ncua believes a Diverse Workforce and diverse supply chain make Good Business sense we are equally committed to all three. Now theno first point money highlight a few the things we have done hosting the first annual summit the first event of its kind and attracted more than 150 the summits goals is to promote the value and provide an opportunity for Credit Unions to share best practices and to discuss solutions and challenges interest in the ei has significantly grown following the summit in fact afterwards Industry Leaders came t together the credit union and the ei collective it now serves as a resource industry on all things related to the ei. Let me highlight the concrete steps we are taking to improve theic metrics. Following the 2019 summit we saw significant increase in voluntary selfassessment we have shown steady increase every year which isve promising to help ensure greater participation our board voted unanimously july of this year to explore ways to incentivize participation with that viability that is charged to creditit unions to survey now congress will support the agency in the effort. My final point diversity and inclusion and importantly within the leadership pipeline over the past five yearsve racial and Ethnic Diversity and Management Level staff have increased by more than five Percentage Points. During the same period racial and Ethnic Diversity have increased by almost all Percentage Points. At the end of 201920 percent of the workforce support diverse employees and create a strong sense of belonging within the agency is also worth noting we are committed to Continuous Improvement with respect to supplier diversity the agency awarded 40 percent of the total contract hours to minority and women ownedn businesses also the words to minority owned businesses has improved by. 9 15 15. Nine Percentage Points over the last five years in closing ncua is committed to advancing inclusion within the agency and the Credit Union System and the broader Financial Services sector i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you to alle the witnesses i recognize myself for five minutes. Why do you believe your entity has failed to self assess . We have been providing an opportunity for institutions to do just that in several instances we were not sure what information they needed to submit but through the years to clarify on those types of information that would be helpful and productive within the Financial Services industry. We have seen even this year at of the Major Financial Institution more than 50 percent have submitted assessments which are significant andwh addressing some of the areas we are focusing on like supplier diversity. You had the highest level of response to the Self Assessment request but fails short should that be mandatory or regulated . Are you with me . Thank you for the question. The ncua would be willing to consider and provide Administrative Assistance to congress if they make the selfassessment mandatory the agency has taken the position of the general counsels office they are not mandatory. Anyone else want to comment . As a top priority can you provide an update on the effort . Yes thank you for the question weve been working extensively to build more relationship with minority women within the Second District as i mentioned in my oral statement we are part of the most recent work we have done with Security Professionals and we will be announcing counterparty relationships with minority women and veteran owned businesses and when we have to continue to go after we understand this is an imperativ imperative. So to all of the witnesses are you familiar with the letters that came from the omb director when he made ureference i would like to enter into the record without objection. Do you believe training for diversity and inclusion that all white people contribute to racism and he said in this letter where they are asking for us to stop. That can be yes or no we will go right down the panel. We do not have training for that language like that. C we is no way have any training. No we do not at the federalal reserve board have that trainin training. Anyone else . With the fdic we do not includeg training but our purpose is to educate and not alienate. My time is up i yield back now i go to our Ranking Member for five minutes for questions. You served as executive director since the office was established in 2010 i would love to hear from you what has been the most significant challenges that you and your office with respect to recruiting and retaining women and minorities . With those fdic statements earlier the largest population of the occ to maintain a firm pipeline that is the biggest challenge so that is a long training time. And distracting to new people as i think of the career so we spend a lot of time in terms of marketing and the work that is involved based on travel and the amount of time we are invested and then that training time. Is five years so we have to build that incentive. So let me just ask you so how do you address those challenges . Are there any new challenges you are facing right now . We tried to Pay Attention to this a lot over the years and the Employee Network groups for those constituents not only to get support to be knowledgeable of opportunity of promotions and new Job Opportunities but mentoring and coaching to keep and shut on each other informed that is important to them in their career. In july acting counsel announced the goal of expanding Financial Access from those excluded from the mainstream Banking System and access to the main street Banking System is very important to me with millions of americans on bank and under bank how will that help them . We are focusing on convening players relative to the banking world and civil rights and Technology Organization and try to identify the failures so the major piece focused around resolution and with that type si soha the main issue it is resolution oriented. You mention the new york fed the Resource Network is this similar to Employee Resource Group and explain the difference in how they proved to be effective every tension for women and minorities within the new yorkd . Fed. Thank you for the question. The employee Resource Network is the same what you expect in the federal space we have ten as you highlight we have 1500 employees that participate in a help to bring out a variety of programs last year alone we had 50 programs to help with building inclusion within the organization and also a series of issues affecting those communities we see those is integral to our business. Thats terrific the family Resource Network is something we are seeing in the private and financial regulator system. I am out of time thank you again for your interest in testimony today and i yield back what is recognize the distinguish woman from california Maxine Waters. I would like to direct my first question with the fdic with your improvement of minorities and women can you breakca that down to tell us how many africanamericans . Can you give us that informationt information . Yes we do break that down we can get that information. I do not have all the details with me. But i do have that 32 percent is minorities if you look at the total workforce today 30 percent are minorities and we have increased that representation rate. Im interested in knowing exactly how many africanamericans and asians. Do you have that information . I have some of that here with me ill be happy to give you the rest. There is 17 percent from the workforce and ask 45 percent women other groups id be happy to get you that s information. When you think about women with the breakdown of the protective classes. I do not have that with me that i will be happy to get that to you. Thank you very much y v vi. As another aspect of appreciative on hiring and contractors give me an example of the type of contract for minorities and women. Those going to minority and women owned businesses the o majority our Capital Projects we have done in outreach to encourage minority owned businesses particularly to have meetings around those we currently have with major contracts on the professional side of services we are acquiring and in that regard err minority and women and owned businesses. I like to get a breakdown of the kinds of contracts you have been able to assist at the fed like to know all of the areas and you can get that information to us. Will be happy to provide tha that. Back to the fdic i have been concerned about small banks in particular. It seems to me increasingly over the years a number of small banks that b have failed. We do not have that breakdown of that specific acquisition information if there is a Small Institution that we base the policy statement to findto those bidders before we open it up. Have you been unsuccessful with any acquisitions to put them back on the market . Yes we have been successful be happy to give you the erdetail details. H it also can we get information what kind of contract have you been able to assist minorities with . Across the board generally but relativeel to it 60 percent of our businesses in the it arena we been very successful with the contractors. I would like to get that tinformation from you to understand exactly what businesses have been successful and then to do outreach to other businesses that are eligible for other contracts you may not be responding to in any way i yield back the balance of my time thank you very much. The chair recognizes the distinguished gentleman from oklahoma congressman lucas. Thank you madam chair for holding this hearing today how we can achieve a may a more Diverse Workforce the most major challenge is finding diverse and qualified applicants i would like to put this question to the entire panel which Financial Literacy and initiatives are your respective organizations involved into a straight to stud on students careers in the Financial Sector so they can prepare themselves for the opportunities that exist i asked the hope the question. This is the occ. We became very clear preparing at the College Level is difficult so two years ago we began an Internship Program at the local high school here and that is 100 students that participated in part of that was oriented around Financial Literacy. Anyone else . We have several programs that are geared to encouraging, educating and providing information on the kinds of jobs. We work very closely with a lot of the hbcus, the hispanic serving institutions. We also participate in an initiative that was started in chicago which is called the pipeline initiative, which is done with major banking and Financial Services companies to basically establish relationships through mentoring and coaching for College Students who are interested in finance and bringing them into the organization to do rotation assignments, to do some internships and we monitor that very closely. We stay engaged with those students. We participate in the American Economic Association Summer program, which i mentioned previously, in order to not only encourage students to stay in the economic field but also to provide them support in advancing their education. Davy this is monica davy. Like the other agencies mentioned, we have three different types of intern programs. One is a High School Program we participated in this year. We also have a pathways program, as well as an Internship Program that focuses on bringing minorities to the agency. With all of those interns that come in, we are sure to provide Financial Inclusion as part of their education. We also have on our website, my credit union provides a ton of Financial Inclusion education geared specifically to children. Also, we participate with the African American credit union coalition. Theres a conference every year where they actually have a Financial Inclusion fair, where students are brought through, given jobs, given a budget and they learn how to spend money on Different Things like paying bills. Thank you. Representative lucas, this is lainey damons, in addition to the injuries of programs that my then addition to many of programs that my colleagues mentioned we have robust Financial Literacy program and our Outreach Team does and last year we reached out thousands of students as well as educators to our economic Pedagogy Program as well as our comic book series where we find Financial Literacy is very important or the Second District in new york area. Congressman lucas i want to thank you for tying those two together. Just the recruitment and Financial Literacy and i remember when i started at Savannah State walking down the commons area the first thing i see is a bunch of different credit card companies. Trying to reel me in so when our recruiters to the different universities, the one thing we do and an intentional effort that we dont just tell them about the jobs we have, we talk about our severances and we have services, and we have resume writing and we talk about Financial Literacy and really make sure that we prepare with the market interviews, we prepare the students they can be successful when they compete. The reason i brought this up as we create copper we create opportunities for people to live up to their potential. I have to know those opportunities exist. Thats why these programs are so critical. And with that madam chairman my time has expired and ideal back. And i yield back. Thank you very much. Now it is my honor to go to the distinguished gentleman from missouri, congressman clay. Thank you so much madam chair and let me also thank you and my friend and neighbor for banking Ranking Member wagner for conducting this hearing today. I think its so important that we examine this subject and doctor chris brahmers recent report entitled what do the data reveal about absence of black financial regulators. Found a critical lack of black people among appointees and senior policy. Staff at the financial regulatory statements. According to the analysis, only 10 of 300 and 75 , 79 employees have been black. Only five of 120 total senior policy staff was in the position are currently held by africanamericans at the agency. The report concluded when black people are included , from these excluded from these high posts in the financial regulatory agencies , black voices are muted and do not have a say in outcomes that affect their ability to be fully included in the economy this , these two questions are to all panelists. With the lack of diversity in these senior levels, what else do can we do to ensure the Minority Community is not overlooked by their agencies consider new rules and regulations and what measures do your officers take to review diversity within promoting and hiring senior staff so two questions. What else do you all do and then how do you all impact hiring and promoting of senior staff. We can start with miss 80 and go with ms. Davy and go down the line. Thank you so much for that . The first say we are proud at the end you see a to have chairman hood who is the first africanamerican head of our banking Regulatory Agency and he is extremely committed to making sure that we examine our processes. Our policies, our systems to remove any barriers that exist are africanamericans to proceed up in the career pipeline. We are extremely committed to making sure we have mentoring, employee asked for mentor no matter what their grade is, were sure to make sure that employee has a mentor. We are looking at our examiner series because the percent of 57 of our workforce are examiners. So it africanamericans or any other Minority Group are not succeeding for that career pipeline, are not going to achieve the diversity results that we want to within the past year we forked with opm to really look at our examiners series and look at how employees are able to process through. Weve looked at these exams, the examiners have to take to vote to go from grade 11 to grade 12 to make sure if there are any barriers there that are not completely visible to us that we remove them and address them. And i am proud of that work that weve done. Let me get to the rest of the panel. Thank you. Miss pearson, how do we overcome the challenges . Some of the things weve done at fdic, weve engaged the hiring manager and we have frank conversations about what the needs are and then along with our hr office we also partner with how we advertise when we go out to events we dont talk about marketing and threelevel entry level positions, we also now talk about our higher level positions will be available and in addition to that were in the process of editing our merit promotion process. And so with that policy we have been involved in looking with that policy make sure we dont put any unintended barriers. We also have some new corporate wide dissection planning that were working on. We have a new Leadership Development program and we identify high performing people to pull them into that program. We also have a special Assistance Program where individuals who may not have had an opportunity to work with the chairman of the office level have that exposure and that awareness and then were also taking the time to look at our processes, evaluating and identify and eliminate any barriers that we have and that way we can make sure that senior Leadership Team is diverse and inclusive and represents the communities that we serve. Thank you miss pearson, miss dingman can you weigh in on the question . Like my colleagues we have similar processes in place and we utilize seven different search factors for diversity outreach efforts and many of them are minority Women Veterans businesses and in addition we also ensure that you are your recruitment efforts, we make sure that as part of the process we remove as unclassified as possible to a rigorous set of processes and programs that we have an overall i feel like we are very much doing our part to try and raise awareness for the hiring managers that we continue our diverse candidates. Thank you for your response and my time is up. The chairwoman now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from ohio. Congressman gonzales for five minutes for questions. Thank you chairwoman beatty and its good to see you as always and thank you everybody for being here today. For this important hearing. Miss pearson i want to start with you. For a couple of questions. I was struck by your personal stories a little bit of background before i get this job i was a professional Football Player in a prior life and you sort of described growing up more in the south, black woman in theing up poor south, black woman and how difficult journey can be but you talk about how in your Work Experience has helped you sort of not just professionally but in terms of sort of overcoming many of these barriers area when you describe that it resonates with me because you sort of describe a lot of my teammates. They were men similar growing up poor, black and in the south. My question is and maybe its beyond the scope of this Committee Even but how do we get more people to travel the distance that you did area a professional distance to go from difficult circumstances to where we can overcome barriers and really just power through some of these incredibly difficult obstacles that we have in our society today. Id love to hear your perspective on. So the first thing is to be intentional. There are more out there in the world and that are a lot better than i am so be purposeful and go to the historically black colleges. Go to other minorities institutions and recruit them and let them be prepared to be successful. Once you get these individuals on board myself , make us feel included and when i say make us feel included, that we have opportunities that we have opportunities to engage as far as like with employee resources where no matter where youre particularly located the fdic has been in our mentoring programs. I was in our executive potential program, the fdic paper graduate school of banking i went to harvard so really having that Career Development, i had both formal and informal mentors at the fdic. So and then there were a number of different career paths or where i wanted to take. Not only was there recruitment where my recruits recruited me from Savannah State. They didnt stop once i came on board. They called me regularly. They checked in on me to see how i was doing. When i got on the job i had a coach assigned to help me with my commissioning process. I had Career Development opportunity and then they gave me the opportunity to do like the work im doing now. I go back to Savannah State university when i can to do recruiting and identify others and share my different perspectives that may be valuable in saying this may look like that to you but that is a rising star right there and i can see it because i was that person. Thats powerful, thank you for sharing that. One of the issues we encountered through the pandemic is getting capital into the hands of Small Businesses. And particularly minority owned businesses. Can you share your perspective on how minority owned businesses were able to Access Capital from Financial Institutions and what we could have done better so im trying to understand that we made some progress but what did the stars do and how can we sort of pass those on to the rest of the financial communities . I want to make sure i get your question. Your question is more focused on getting capital into the hands of Small Businesses, minority owned businesses okay. One of the first things is developing a relationship. When relationships going in, getting to know your bank at fdic we not only have a Community Bank advisory committee, we established a Minority Depository Institution subcommittee and the reason i bring that up is because Minority Depository Institutions serve their communities. Not just with the bigelow but with the big loans, but they are probably the biggest lender or one of the big lenders for Small Business loans in minority owned communities. They know their communities so our support has been how can we work more closely with institutions like Minority Depository Institutions to help serve their communities. I only have 20 seconds so ill yield back but thank you madam chair thank you miss pearson. Thank you very much and the chair now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from texas and the chairman of oversight investigation. Congressman graham. Congressman green. Green seatedn . Im seated and unmuted. Thank you very much. Thank you for posting the hearing today and the Ranking Member as well read especially i want to thank the chair of the full committee. And i do this because the question i have to say this during his long overdue but its timely. Its timely in the sense that on september 5, i had intelligence indicating President Trump had banned diversity training and it seems to be calling it antiamerican. It seems to be saying that such training only fosters resentment in the workplace. That is pretty strong language. Given that we know the role of the is to create forums where employees can have candid, courageous and Safe Conversations about the impacts of discrimination in their personal and Work Experiences. This causes me a good deal of concern so let me just ask you miss pearson to quickly tell me do you provide such training at your agency and can you just give me some indication as to what the benefits of these trainings , this training is that relates to your staff . We do provide training on Diversity Inclusion and our purpose like i said earlier, our purpose in our training is to educate and not alienate. We have to meet people where they are, people bring different needs and perspectives and we need to meet together where we are. Then we move forward and we move forward together. That means sometimes the conversations are a little uncomfortable but we learn and we grow and we move forward and the feedback that weve received from employees is that they appreciate the training that we have. They appreciate the opportunity to share their stories read other folks appreciate the opportunity to share different perspectives and we all feel that this is a good thing for us area. Let me just quickly talk to all the members of the panel because ordinarily i would simply have you raise your hands but given the environment were in , let me ask you miss cofield quickly to you believe that this is the american thing to do that this kind of training is appropriate for your workplace. And can you give me a simple yes, sir no . I think its quite appropriate yes. Miss clark. I also feel that is quite appropriate area. I agree as well. I agree as well. I also would want to call this to the attention of my colleagues. This is evidence of why we need hr 8160 , the bill that promotes diversity and inclusion in banking. This is important because we have evidence now that the president will do what he can to thwart the efforts of something that has been the law for many years now, not frank into being dodd frank brought it into being under the leadership of Maxine Waters area this kind of effort to thwart what we are trying to do which is constitutional which is american should not be allowed. And this bill would actually require the regulators to examine Financial Inclusion and diversity and inclusion. So im actually saddened by what the president has done but its evidence of what must be done. So im going to bed my to beg my colleagues to please examine this bill hr 8160 because clearly if we dont have this enacted into law, this motion that we can at least do what the constitution says we should do by virtue of many sections of it, i wont go into them right now but that is to try to become an america where everybody is treated equally. Equality under the law area im very much disturbed by what the president has done rid asked one additional question i have in the past about how some 70 percent of the executive Level Community positions have certain certain banks are held by men. Some 70 . That means obviously about 30 percent of the positions are held by women. In a country where more than 50 percent of the people are women it just seems to me that this is further evidence of the need for we ask each of you again to tell me with the two seconds i have left, tell me quickly about your beliefs in terms of what women bring to the workplace. Do women bring value to the workplace such that we ought to have them give us their opinions by way of being a part of the workforce . Miss cofield. Yes. Miss clark. Most definitely. Miss dingman. Yes. Miss davies. Yes. I yield back. Thank you congressman and the chair recognizes the distinguished member from wisconsin, congressman feel. Thank you very much chairwoman, appreciate you holding todays hearing and appreciate all of our panelists for being on to discuss what an important topic , how do we create a more Perfect Union and get the inclusion and make sure everyone has a seat at the table. I have the opportunity to read the testimony and i wanted to ask you miss pearson , in particular we hear a lot about the difficulty on the recruiting side of getting underrepresented minorities into and at the table. And i wanted just to dive in with you in some of the things your organization is doing in particular as it relates to the mentor ship side of this. We talk a lot about the need to make sure underrepresented minorities , women have that network that they can rely on to be able to get back into the table and what youve been doing in particular as it relates to the internal process of the mentorship program. Of some of these groups. Thank you for that question. At the fdic we have a variety of different ways both formal and informal for those mentoring opportunities. Our first thought was informal. I talked to you how they recruited me out of college, still served as an informal mentor. I was progressing and on the formal side of the fdic and also a variety of different ways. If you are a staff level employee you can be involved in our mentor and program where youre applying to be a more Senior Leader and you develop a leadership plan and in addition we have a specific plan for leaders. We have our leadership mentoring plans where managers can be partnered with more senior managers for their development. If you have an interest in becoming a leader you also have a program for emerging leaders where you can seek coaching and in addition we are now focused on some of our more Senior Leadership opportunities where we can take individual that we identify are highperforming and partner them with specific assignments and higher levels that they may not normally get an opportunity to be exposed to because that awareness, all those things help contribute to the success factors and it did for me. Thank you miss pearson and in the limited time i have here im going to ask miss Cofield Cofield and ms. Clark, youve heard about these 50,000 feet discount discussing some of the strategies and id love for each of you to talk about a specific story where this has been impactful. Sometimes when we talk about this as an individual helps us on the committee and those watching better understand the work being done so if you have a story on that miss cofield i love to hear how that played out in a practical way for an individual that benefited by some of the strategies youve employed at the occ. I can think of really cases but particularly this year, last year has actually dive down into our area analysis because what we were seeing was a low Participation Rate of hispanics in our Organization Even though we were hiring at the labor force where we know this was a did not stay on board. They did not stay with us from a retention standpoint. Weve done what we call a hispanic area analysis and out of that we had an opportunity to gain information through focus Group Activities and what we learn is so much involved in terms of what the employees experiences like no not only were we to get the numbers to get them looking at the movements from one job to another , promotion opportunities, we got to hear the stories from hispanics themselves in terms of how life and the kinds of things that were supported to them and the kinds of things that actually ended up being barriers to them. Thank you very much. With a limited time of going to try to jump to ms. Clark if you have a story where it personifies this that would be terrific for all of us. Thank you very much. One of the ways i use myself, ive been working since i was 16 years old. A couple of decades in there. I have been in business and i came to the Federal Reserve board from the private sector. And immediately , i received a mentor who basically helped guide me through the culture of the organization which i think is critical and also enable me to have an opportunity to understand what it was i needed to do as an individual to be successful within the organization. We continue having had that experience i am more than willing to support anyone who has an interest and also provide them with resources to achieve their goals the board continues to do that today. Thank you very much list ms. Clark and looking at the time i will yield back. The chairwoman now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from florida, congressman lawson for five minutes for questions. Thank you chairwoman baby and beatty, andn Ranking Member wagner area for posting this hearing today. We are now on the tip fifth anniversary of frank. And one of the things that we found across the financial Regulatory Agency, africanamerican employees generally receive lower homeless lower rates than white employees. This is since this has been prevalent and we are aware of it , what progress is and practices and i heard you all talk about mentors and so forth that have been implemented to relieve some of the values and your Performance Review process. That may have caused those performance areas and what then has your agency corrected since the Committee Review in 2015 . So if i could just go down the line and maybe have you know one after the other. One of the things the board has done, by an annual basis we review all of our performance ratings. I am involved in the process. We look to see if there are any outliers in the way in which people are being evaluated on the criteria or they reestablished around the competency and performance that is needed. Once we review those performance ratings we have discussions where there are issues that we had discussions with the divisions in which those issues persist in and we work to find out exactly what is being done to make sure that everyone is treated on an equal Playing Field and that the evaluations are done fairly and equitably and we do this annually we identify barriers. And then we also are engaged in making sure that people understand what the level of expectations are and that discrimination or any allegations that is prohibited to one advancing of self within the organization is needed. Ok, next. Ms. Davy from ncua. Thank you so much. One of the things we do besides reviewing our performance evaluations to make sure that there is consistency. We also make sure that in our mentoring program we call it mentoring across differences and we try to make sure when people get mentors that they get someone outside of their group. To make sure people have exposure to other people read thats one of the really good ways you can break down unconscious biases. We make sure resource at their executive sponsors for people that are not part of those groups. We do very focused training on unconscious bias because we know unconscious bias can come into play when doing performance evaluations so those are things we do that would help deal with that issue. Cofield from the occ. Dissimilar from what my colleagues have offered up we also are unconscious bias trainings specifically with managers dive down into the consequences of bias within our processes and our performance processes, one of those that we highlight. So we are consciously not only making sure that theres training in this show them how they use this in their everyday process in and of itself. In addition we provide past performance ratings to managers prior to the Upcoming Administration so they can see what their trends and the performances look like in the past and they can see their own reflection in terms of whether or not the things they need to consider differently. Miss pearson. At the fdic like my colleagues we also provide training to our managers and we have a robust review process. The part that i would like to add that i dont think ive heard yet is that we also train our employees and managers on the rating process and we provide opportunities for our employees to know how to put their best foot forward and so when they are providing information and feedback to their managers, how can they explain information in a way to make sure that their best foot is forward so in addition to the training that we do and in addition to the process we also make sure our employees are prepared and all those things Work Together to make sure we reach a fair and equitable process. I think we have one. Like my colleagues we do similar processes and i know were out of time that i would say we also focused extensively on training as well as how do we ensure that the process is straight through and evaluating those ratings every year to make sure there is no unconscious bias that we mitigate unconscious bias in the process. And ill print out the time and with that i yield back. The chair now recognizes the distinguished dental lady from gentlelady from texas, congresswoman garcia for five minutes for questions. Im doing it from a cell phone, can youll hear me . We can hear you and see you. Great. At least two things will make it work. Thank you so much chairwoman for this. Two things in this topic that are so important , and i wanted to start with this , the missed with ms. Dingam from newy york. You mentioned a lot of the outreach and a lot of the programs that new york is doing what is in your judgment the best tool that you all have and others should use as a best practice to ensure that there is full participation from all the protected classes. I know ive heard from someone mentioned that they had an issue with retention of dinos so latinos. Ion of since youre from new york and have a lot of robust latino population, what is it you may be doing that you might be able to share that would help recruit and retain latinos in your organization . Thank you representative garcia and in regards to the Second District we have a strong hispanic population and we work very hard to try and recruit in hispanics. Unfortunately we have not had the level of success we would like to see that we continue to work to have in our recruitment processes diverse ways and five sure theres ake variety of different beliefs coming to the table for each position that we consider and so i would say thats the key to continue to go after that as well as building robust relationships with outside organizations that can help fill that pipeline so i think like many of my colleagues we have a robust Relationship Management that we do with a variety of different hispanic and africanamerican associations that help us fill our pipeline. You, imvy for following up with that area in particular challenges in your organization with not only outreach programs for all the groups but also perhaps for any language barriers or different policies for example for our seniors to make sure that they feel theyre included and that they use one of their institutions that they are not only people that look like them also like them area. But also speak like them. First internally we make sure that we are recruiting from hispanic serving organizations and pools. And schools. I think one of the biggest impacts that has had on on our organization is the creation of our hispanic resources. Coulter out. Cultura. That group is involved in recruiting coming up with recruiting strategies and they also involve themselves in translation needs that we may have as an agency and with the Credit Union System its extremely important that our Credit Unions are inclusive, that they look at their products and services to make sure theyre offering products and services in different languages and i think that has had a huge impact in our Minority Depository Institutions and Credit Union Space and making sure they have representation area on their power lines, on their board and on their management teams that reflect the community that they serve area. Ms. Clark, i wanted to ask you to talk about a lot of your numbers , the programs you might have. The Biggest Issue that i see with all these programs. Used to be dealt with all kinds of Financial Services groups , particularly banking and the biggest toughest thing is compliance. I mean, we can write all these rules. You can make it mandatory and it can be selfpossessed, whether it can be imposed. The real question of the matter is how do we make these companies and how do we make your systems comply . What would be your recommendation to congress on what we could do for better compliance . Congressman garcia are you addressing compliance for the entity that we regulate or seeking compliance in that regard western mark. In that regard . Yes maam. I think it will be up to the congressional members in congress to put forth what they feel is necessary in order to have these institutions be compliant. What would make it easier for you to help with compliance and again, as we switch from voluntary to mandatory we still have to make people do it. What would be helpful is i think the more information we are able to receive and know what the practices are , the institutions that we regulate, the better we are able to serve the intention of the legislation that was issued. I believe that continued dialogue and meeting and reimbursing with each other and being intentional on the things that we do would make it much more successful. Thank you chairman beatty and ive run out of time. The chair now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from pennsylvania, congresswoman dean for five minutes for questions. Unmuted,. m thank you for holding this hearing. Im delighted to be here with you. So i wanted to first quickly ask a followup to the question that representative greene asked about the news reporting of september 5 that the Trump Administration had instructed federal agencies to end Racial Sensitivity Training and that was followed by an omb mailing to federal agencies but i wanted to ask just a yes, sir no and we no, and we will go down right down the line. Prior to the omb notice , or after as the Trump Administration asked your agency to stop diverse city and sensitivity training . If i could start with miss cofield. Im not aware of that. Thank you, ms. Clark. Im not aware also. Not that im aware of. Not that im aware of. Not that im aware of. I appreciate that. So much of the information youre talking about and the good work youre doing , revolves around who we hire. And so one of the things that we know , that weve learned of the importance of divers hiring panels to ensure that a large range of perspectives are offered when evaluating potential employees reedit we know that hiring committees and panels with little to no diversity can bring bias even unintended bias if everybody looks the same, everybody has a similar background and experience , there will be necessarily some builtin bias. In the review of applicants read to that and ill go through each of you again , in terms of divers hiring panels what is your agency doing to ensure that miss cofield please. So we have a general rule are panels are diverse and in fact that our objective committee we actually check in with you each other on a regular basis as decisions are mailed made as to selections of what the diversity of the panel is and give each other feedback as to whether or not the concept of diversity is the intent of that diversity is in fact real so the diversity of the panel is a very important critical issue relative to the Selection Process at occ. And it must be intentional , absolutely right. The Federal Reserve board we also have a process by which the recruitment process enables people to potential attend training on bias and the recruiting process. We have diverse panels for all our physicians particularly on official bands. All our positions on official staffs. I am involved in the process and i am in the process so that i can determine whether or not we are being inclusive , not only from those who are being interviewers but also the folks who have the support so that is a regular part of our process overall, diversity is key. Thank you very much and miss dingam . We also have a diverse paddling process similar to my colleagues. We ensure that we have several panels participate in each of our hiring selections and then we review those metrics after the process is concluded to make sure we have maintained that process and in its entirety so we feel like that has helped us in mitigating unconscious bias. Is that in your practice . It has been a practice since my time at the bank. But i would say its been long before my time. We do recommend the best practice of having diverse panels and in addition we provide unconscious bias for our hiring managers and the very the third thing that we do is electing official but theres also a review process where theres a proven review to that particular selection for our Job Opportunities. At the ncua we have a policy of whenever possible that there be the inclusion of a minority for women representation. Im glad to hear all of that. Did you know that in order to be successful at recognizing and hiring in diverse ways we have to be intentional. We have to critically examine who is , who are applicants, who is in the pipeline but also who is reviewing so i thank you all for your leadership there an ideal back the remainder of my back the remainder of my time. Thank you very much and id like to thank all of our witnesses for their testimony today and without objection all members will have five legislative days to in which to submit additional written questions for the witnesses to provide to the chair which will be ported to the witnesses for their response and i ask our witnesses please respond as promptly as you are able. The committee will now stand in recess for no longer than five minutes and as we transition to our second panel of witnesses