On September 16, 2025, Pryor Cashman Financial Institutions Practice Partners Pinchus D. Raice and Dustin N. Nofziger submitted comments to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in response to the agency’s July 18, 2025, notice of proposed Guidelines for Appeals of Material Supervisory Determinations (RIN 3064-ZA50).
The comments were informed by the authors’ substantial experience with the appeals processes of the FDIC and other prudential banking regulators. The comments raised concerns about the independence, transparency, and fairness of the proposed guidelines and offered specific recommendations to enhance the intra-agency appeals process.
The FDIC’s final appeals guidelines, published on January 22, 2026, adopted several of Pinchus and Dustin’s recommendations:
- Panel Composition: In addition to requiring supervisory experience on each three-person reviewing panel of the new Office of Supervisory Appeals (Office), the FDIC will include at least one individual on each reviewing panel with experience as a banker or other industry professional to promote balanced decision-making.
- Transparency of Withheld Materials: If materials or substantive communications submitted by supervisory staff to the Office are withheld from the appealing institution due to applicable legal limitations on disclosure, the Office will provide the reasons for any redactions to the appealing institution, thus providing the institution with an opportunity to challenge the redactions.
- Clarifying Appealable Matters: The facts and circumstances underlying certain pending or proposed formal enforcement actions are now appealable.
The final appeals guidelines, which provide that appeals will be heard by a reviewing panel of officials from the Office not otherwise employed by the FDIC who will apply a non-deferential standard of review, represent a substantial evolution in the FDIC’s appeals guidelines.
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