WASHINGTON — President Trump announced his intention late Friday to nominate James Clinger, a former top aide to the House Financial Services Committee, as the next chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The move was a surprise since FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg's term does not expire until near the end of November. But Clinger can be confirmed to a vacant board seat before Gruenberg's departure.
Clinger is well known to the financial services industry. He was previously the chief counsel for the Financial Services Committee under Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., and was senior banking counsel under former Chairman Michael G. Oxley between 2001 and 2005. He was also deputy assistant attorney general from 2005 to 2007 in the George W. Bush administration.
Clinger is being nominated for a board term of six years and a chairman term of five years beginning Nov. 29.
Trump has now announced the next leaders of the FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, but left key vacant positions on the Federal Reserve Board unfilled. Randal Quarles, a former Treasury undersecretary in the Bush administration, is widely expected to be named vice chair of banking supervision at the Fed.
