New Tech Leader at FDIC Works on Upgrading IT

Sylvia Burns, promoted from deputy CIO to CIO, aims to test use of AI to boost bank examiners’ productivity

February 3, 2020
By Agam Shah

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has promoted its deputy chief information officer to CIO as the agency continues a five-year IT modernization effort to better oversee a banking sector transformed by technology.

Sylvia Burns, who joined the banking regulator as deputy CIO in September 2018, succeeds Howard Whyte, who left in early January after two years at the FDIC to join the private sector.

The FDIC insures bank deposits up to $250,000. It examines and supervises banks to make sure they are safe and comply with consumer-protection laws.

Ms. Burns manages about 350 IT workers and reports to Jelena McWilliams, the FDIC’s chairman. The agency has an annual IT budget of around $350 million.

Among the new CIO’s top agenda items will be updating systems and apps to support its geographically dispersed examiners and the increasingly tech-savvy sector they regulate.

The full article is available on WSJ.com.