Andrew C. Hove Jr. borrowed a line from baseball philosopher Yogi Berra to begin his latest stint atop the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
"It's deja vu all over again," Mr. Hove wrote in a memo to employees on June 2, day one of his third stint as the agency's acting chairman.
The memory may linger. The Clinton administration is far from nominating a successor to Ricki Helfer, who resigned June 1, and observers predict Mr. Hove will lead the agency for at least a year before a nominee is selected and confirmed.
A former Nebraska banker who joined the FDIC as vice chairman in 1990, the 62-year-old Mr. Hove already has been chairman longer than five of the 16 permanent heads in the agency's history.
He ran the FDIC for two weeks in 1991 and again from August 1992 when Chairman William Taylor died to October 1994 when Ms. Helfer took office.
"I intend to operate this agency as if I am here permanently," Mr. Hove said in a recent interview. "I am going to do those things that I think need to be done because the agency can't stand still."
Indeed, Mr. Hove asserted himself on the first day of his new term by requesting the resignation of Leslie A. Woolley, a close Helfer aide who is pursuing the chairmanship. She refused to leave, and the situation has yet to be settled.
While he plans no significant policy shift, Mr. Hove said he would reevaluate his agency's position on financial modernization and deposit insurance reform.
Ms. Helfer testified in favor of affiliations among financial services firms and a limited mixture of banking and commerce. Yet Mr. Hove pointed out that community banks, the bulk of the institutions regulated by the FDIC, oppose letting banks combine with nonfinancial businesses.
"I want to look at it," he said, "and I won't commit right now to change any position."
Like his predecessor, Mr. Hove supports the banking industry's position that no merger of the insurance funds should take place unless the bank and thrift charters are merged first.
Now is the best time to merge the funds, while thrifts and banks are healthy and the funds are well capitalized, he said, but "you can't do that and leave the powers in the charters different."
During an interview, Mr. Hove focused more on internal concerns, such as continued downsizing at the agency-a move he took credit for launching in 1993-and outfitting examiners with state-of-the-art laptop computers to reduce the time spent in banks.
Reassuming the reins gives Mr. Hove a chance to cleanse the bitter aftertaste of his previous turn at the helm, when he was labeled a nice guy with little power. He was frustrated by 2-2 tie votes on the then short- handed FDIC board.
"The last time Skip was acting chairman, he had a very difficult time," said Kenneth A. Guenther, executive vice president of the Independent Bankers Association of America. "His image as a leader suffered."
In March 1993, after the death of board member C.C. Hope, Mr. Hove was the lone insider board member and was outnumbered 2-1 by Treasury Department officials. Comptroller of the Currency Eugene A. Ludwig dominated the FDIC board, and he and Jonathan L. Fiechter, then the acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, outvoted Mr. Hove on key issues.
For example, Mr. Hove could not block them from severely curtailing the FDIC's backup examination powers of national and state member banks-a serious affront to the agency's independence.
"I didn't like it," but the resolution of the banking crisis made the controversy moot, Mr. Hove said.
Even today, the issue of board composition persists.
Mr. Hove opposes the Treasury's recent proposal to reduce the FDIC board to three members from five and make the comptroller acting chairman if the agency's leader steps down. Mr. Hove recommended adding a governor from the Federal Reserve Board as the fifth member and keeping an FDIC insider as vice chairman.
Mr. Hove insisted his tenure as acting chairman was a success, noting as achievements the creation of risk-based premiums in 1993 and rules limiting abuses by mutual thrifts converting to stockholder ownership.
At the end of 1992, a few months after he took over, the bank fund was in the red and nearly 1,100 institutions were on the FDIC's problem list.
By the time he turned things over to Ms. Helfer, the bank fund's reserves had been restored to more than $20 billion, and the list of problem institutions had shrunk nearly 70%.
Mr. Hove should have an easier time with the current board. While Treasury officials hold two of the four spots, Mr. Hove has an ally in fellow Republican appointee Joseph H. Neely, who joined the board in early 1996.
"In his two prior terms as acting chairman, he has not had an inside director to assist him and support him," Mr. Neely said. "He has that now. He has my full support."
The board still will be susceptible to 2-2 deadlocks, as happened on Mr. Hove's second day on the job when the two Treasury officials reportedly stalled the ouster of Ms. Woolley.
Mr. Hove's lieutenants include deputy Roger A. Hood and special assistant Lynn A. Nejezchleb as well as chief operating officer Dennis F. Geer.
Staff members say the transition to Mr. Hove should go smoothly given his experience at the agency. Mr. Hove is well-liked by the staff; his personality is a stark contrast to that of the hard-charging Ms. Helfer.
"Skip definitely has a lower-key style than Ricki," said Nicholas J. Ketcha Jr., director of supervision.
"Folks are just really happy to be working for him," one staffer said. "He listens. He's concerned."
"Skip suffers from what I think is the kind of congenital niceness Nebraskans think they have," quipped Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., a member of the House Banking Committee and neighbor of Mr. Hove in Arlington, Va. "Sometimes people take advantage of us."
Born in Minden, Neb., Mr. Hove is the son of a banker. His first job: janitor at Minden Exchange Bank and Trust Co. He would later work in every department of his family's bank and rise to chairman and chief executive during his 30-year career.
He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and became a helicopter pilot during his stint in the Navy. He held numerous civic posts, including mayor of Minden and president of the Nebraska Bankers Association.
He and his wife, Ellan, have been married for 41 years and have three children and seven grandchildren.
Given his background, Mr. Hove is viewed as an ally of the industry, particularly community banks.
The acting chairman acknowledged his roots but does not want to be pegged as a knee-jerk community banker.
He said he would defend the agency against those who seek to privatize federal deposit insurance but is willing to meet with them. "My background is community banking," he said. "From a small-bank standpoint, that deposit insurance means a lot."
But he said he is open to considering portions of a recent proposal by the Bankers Roundtable such as eliminating the FDIC's $30 billion line of credit with the Treasury Department. He also agreed that the insurance funds should be excluded from the federal budget.
Some big banks might not require deposit insurance, he said. "If they don't need it, then let them be something other than a bank," he said.
Despite his familiarity with the job, Mr. Hove said, he does not want to be formally nominated for it. A Republican would not be appointed by a Democratic president anyway, he said, and he added that it's too late in his career to commit himself to many more years at the FDIC. Mr. Hove's term runs until 2000.
Besides, Mr. Hove said, he has been a reluctant acting chairman each time. "I didn't ask for this," he said. "But I am here. I have a responsibility."
