The new, lighter approach mostly applies to non-core banking issues, such as reputational risk, climate change risk, and diversity and inclusion, the people said.
Supervisors are also limiting the scope of exams -- including some related to critical banking issues -- by using more specific language at the outset to explain what they will assess and sticking more closely to examination rulebooks, three of the people said.
The changes are part of a broader effort by Trump's regulators to focus supervision on key financial metrics that measure lenders' safety and soundness, the seven sources said,
The central bank and other regulators announced earlier this year they would stop policing "reputational risk," the potential for negative publicity to hurt a bank's business.
In recent years, however, exams by some agencies have expanded to include scrutiny of areas relating to environmental, social, and governance issues, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion -- factors banks had also begun considering when making lending and other business decisions. Banking regulators around the world have also increased scrutiny of lenders' risk exposure to climate change.
Bank groups have for years complained that exams, which can be lengthy and labor-intensive, are overly subjective and opaque, too focused on process rather than risks, and that supervisors can be unduly hostile toward bank executives.
Big banks have argued official post-mortems show supervisors were distracted by non-core issues, which led them to miss fatal liquidity problems.
"It's time to fight back," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in October 2024 as he blasted several major regulatory initiatives.
Many banks are afraid to "fight with their regulators, because they would just come and punish you more," Dimon said at the time. "We are suing our regulators over and over and over, because things are becoming unfair and unjust."