WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s supervision chief for the last seven years is stepping down.
The agency announced Tuesday that Sandra Thompson, who had been named head examiner right before the crisis started, is leaving to take a job at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. She will be succeeded as head of safety and soundness supervision by FDIC veteran Doreen Eberley.
Thompson "is an exemplary public servant who has demonstrated leadership, vision and a commitment to the FDIC's mission throughout her long career," FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in a press release.
After holding other leadership positions during 20 years at the agency, Thompson became the director of the FDIC's Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection in 2006. She was the first woman and African-American to oversee supervision at the FDIC.
Following passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, the agency split management of its safety and soundness function from that of its monitoring of banks' consumer compliance. The organizational change resulted in two distinct divisions — the Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection and the Division of Risk Management Supervision — with Thompson heading the latter.
During one time or another, she has also held the positions of deputy to the FDIC vice chairman, deputy director for special projects in the DSC and director of securitizations for the Resolution Trust Corp.
At the FHFA, Thompson will be the agency's deputy director of housing mission and goals. Her last day at the FDIC will be Feb. 1.
Eberley, who will become the new director of the Division of Risk Management Supervision, has been with the FDIC since 1987. After working in the FDIC's liquidation section, Eberley became a commissioned examiner in the then-Division of Bank Supervision. She has also been the FDIC's New York regional director, the acting deputy to former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair and senior deputy director for RMS.
"Her appointment to this position recognizes the trust and confidence she has earned throughout her FDIC career," Gruenberg said.
