WASHINGTON -- Ricki R. Tigert was confirmed by the Sennate Tuesday as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairwoman, giving the agency its first permanent chief in more than two years.
With adjournment looming, the Senate ended months of political gamesmanship and approved Ms. tigert's nomination on a 90-7 vote, without debate.
Andrew C. Hove Jr., who has been acting chairman since August 1992, also was confirmed tuesday as vice chairman.
The other open seat on the agency's five-member board was not filled.
The Republican nominee, Anne L. Hall, was so frustrated with the Senate's slow pace that she withdrew from consideration last month.
Ms. Tigert, a Washington lawyer who has worked at both the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, faces a slew of challenges.
Internally, Ms. Tigert must make staff and program cutbacks as well as figure out a way to absorb hundreds of returning Resolution Trust Corp. employees.
The largest policy question facing the new agency chief is whether to drop bank insurance premiums and create a huge gap in the rates banks and thrifts pay.
Ms. Tigert is the FDIC's 16th chairman and the first woman to lead the agency.
"This is such a big moment, particularly for the women at the agencies," said Barbara Timmer, assistant general counsel and director of government affairs at ITT Corp. "This is historic."
Nominated in November 1993, Ms. Tigert was approved by the Senate Banking Committee in February. But her nomination fell victim to partisan wrangling over President Clinton's involvement with Whitewater Development Co. and a thrift that helped finance it.
Insisting she was too close to President Clinton and his wife Hillary to handle the FDIC's investigation of the failed Madison Savings and Loan objectively, Republicans delayed a vote on her nomination for eight months.
The Clinton's ties to that Arkansas thrift are being probed as pan of the Whitewater investigation. After initially resisting, Ms. Tigert promised to recuse herself from any matters involving the Clintons.
Her nomination was given up for dead in late summer, but a flurry of lobbying by former regulators and bankers transformed Ms. Tigert's plight into a cause celebre.
Then, a long article in The Wall Street Journal last month laid out her plight and put pressure on the Senate to act.
Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, RN.Y., led the fight against Ms. Tigert, but in the end he gave up without even debating the nomination.
Still, he said Monday that he will call her before the Senate Banking Committee to answer more questions about Whitewater and her recusal.
If the Republicans regain control of the Senate next year, Sen. D'Amato could become chairman of the banking committee. That would be a problem for Ms. Tigert, said former FDIC chairman L. William Seidman.
While Mr. Seidman supports Ms. Tigert, he said she will be in an awkward position because Ms. Tigert had to call on the industry she will regulate to lobby for her confirmation.
"This is a very unfortunate way to have a chairman of an independent institution have to behave in order to get confirmed," Mr. Seidman said, "It's not the ideal set up to have the people you're going to regulate spending their time trying to get you confirmed.
"She has rolled the likely chairman of the committee, so both those things are going to make it tougher."
While Ms. Tigert could not be reached Tuesday, Mr. Hove talked to her and reported: "She's enthusiastic. She's relieved."
As for himself, Mr. Hove said, "I'm glad lt's over." He said he will not miss the top spot.
"It's been a little stressful," he said. "I have to admit there were days when I felt like saying, 'I'm outta here.'"
Agency staffers contacted yesterday said they, too, are relieved.
They also are excited that a new leader soon will be in place. (Ms. Tigert's swearing in was not set Tuesday afternoon, but Mr. Hove said it could occur as early as Friday.)
One staffer said his only concern is gridlock now that the board will have two
inside board members and two outside.
The outside members are Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig and acting Office of Thrift Supervision Director Jonathan Fiechter.
That setup could lead to 2-2 ties, as was the case last year when Mr. Hove and director C.C. Hope aligned against Mr. Ludwig and Mr. Fiecther.
Mr. Hove acknowledged the potential for problems.
"Anytime you have a 2-2 vote it's hard to move anything one way or the other," he said.
Asked whether Ms. Tigert is likely to go along with the outside directors, Mr. Hove said: "I think she's an independent person and she'll be her own person."
