History repeated itself Friday when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. named James L. Sexton the new head of its supervision division, effective Jan. 4. He succeeds Nicholas J. Ketcha, who retired last week.
Mr. Sexton, 58, joined the FDIC in 1965 and ran the supervision division in the early 1980s. He left in 1983 to serve as Texas' bank commissioner and joined the Austin, Tex., office of the Bracewell & Patterson law firm in 1987 as a financial institutions consultant.
In an interview, Mr. Sexton repeated the agency's recent credit-quality warnings but downplayed the threat to U.S. banks from the global financial turmoil.
Also Friday, FDIC Chairman Donna A. Tanoue named Jadine Nielsen her deputy, effective Jan. 4. Ms. Nielsen, chief of staff at the Small Business Administration, is a former Los Angeles deputy mayor.
Meanwhile, names are surfacing for the open spot on the FDIC board, a position created when Republican Joseph H. Neely left the agency Oct. 1.
Sources say Howard Menell, who will lose his job as the Senate Banking Committee's staff director when Sen. Phil Gramm becomes chairman in January, is interested in the post.
Some observers speculated that Mr. Menell would have a hard time getting confirmed because Sen. Gramm or others will question his Republican credentials as a former staff member for Democratic Sen. Harrison A. "Pete" Williams Jr., D-N.J., nearly two decades ago. Others disagreed, saying the Senate takes care of former staff members and would appoint him immediately. His bigger problem could be President Clinton, who might refuse to nominate an associate of nemesis Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato.
Another candidate for the FDIC board slot is Arizona bank superintendent Richard C. Houseworth. A former banker, Mr. Houseworth served in the late 1980s as a director of the Export-Import Bank, a position that required Senate confirmation. He also is chairman-elect of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. The same group recently sent letters endorsing his candidacy to President Clinton, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Senate leaders.
Though the White House was preoccupied last week by impeachment and the attack on Iraq, Vice President Gore carved out time to meet BankBoston Corp. chairman and CEO Chad Gifford, Chase Manhattan Corp. vice chairman Donald L. Boudreau, and others to discuss inner-city business development.
Mr. Gifford unveiled $500,000 in grants for technical assistance to New England companies, and Mr. Boudreau announced a mentoring program that connects small-business owners with senior bank executives.
A Manhattan federal court judge last week appointed outgoing Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse M. D'Amato to oversee settlement talks between Holocaust survivors and about 100 German and Austrian banks. He starts in early January.
Sen. D'Amato got the $350-per-hour job from Judge Shirley Wohl Kram, whom he recommended for the federal bench in 1982, The New York Times reported.
While running for reelection, Sen. D'Amato, who was defeated in November, engineered a $1.25 billion settlement for survivors and their families with Swiss banks, which were accused of letting Nazis raid the accounts of Holocaust victims during World War II.
