In OCC Reorganization, 3 Deputy Comptrollers Agree to Retire Early

Three top staff members at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have taken early retirement as part of the agency's restructuring.

The departing deputy comptrollers are Karen J. Wilson, who heads the OCC's northeastern district; Robert R. Klinzing, in charge of the midwestern district; and Barbara C. Healey, the top official in the central district.

As part of an agencywide reorganization, supervision of the 32 largest national banks will shift from the six district offices to OCC headquarters here. Because the responsibilities of the deputy comptrollers will be pared significantly, the OCC decided to offer them the option of an early retirement.

"I was going to have less responsibility than I did before, and I made a commitment to myself that when I didn't feel I was learning at a dramatic rate that I would take on something else," Ms. Wilson, 49, said in an interview Wednesday. Ms. Wilson has been with the agency for 28 years.

The OCC will announce the names of the three replacement deputy comptrollers within two weeks, according to spokeswoman Leonora S. Cross.

The agency also is revamping the structure of the district offices. Cutting several management layers, duties of each region's assistant deputy comptroller are being changed. One assistant deputy will be responsible for examiners at the midsize banks in each region, while several others will oversee groups of community banks.

"This gives us an organization that is more flexible because we can't predict how the banking industry is going to change," Ms. Cross said.

As the banking industry continues to consolidate, there will be fewer banks for the OCC to supervise.

The Comptroller's Office oversees about 2,660 national banks. But that number has been dropping by about 200 annually, and the figure could be down to 2,000 by the end of the century, according to the OCC.

This translates into less work for examiners. To date, the OCC has cut 427 jobs through a combination of resignation incentives and retirement offers. The agency expects another 100 of its 2,937 staff members to leave by the end of 1998 through normal turnover.

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Klinzing said Comptroller Eugene A. Ludwig asked him to take a job in the agency's Washington headquarters, but he turned it down.

"I said, 'Look, Gene, I'm serious. I've had a 29-year career here, and five-and-a-half years of that I've spent away from my family,'" Mr. Klinzing said. "I came to realize that I don't really know my loved ones very well."

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