WASHINGTON – The new year should bring greater certainty to the management of financial institution regulatory agencies, including NCUA.
With a divided Congress slow to confirm appointees, only one of the four federal bank regulators had a permanent chief, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board of directors had just three members. No one on the board was the confirmed head of an agency.
Though there have been speed bumps to arriving at a full slate of regulators, the agencies are set to enter 2013 with more certainty about who is in charge. Unlike “acting” leaders who call the shots in the interim, observers said locked-in terms are likely to make regulators more assertive and efficient in carrying out post-crisis policy, including rules still yet to be implemented under the Dodd-Frank Act.
“It is harder to be bold when you don’t know if you’re going to be there very long,” said Eugene Ludwig, a former comptroller of the currency and now head of the Promontory Financial Group.
Last December, the only confirmed agency head was Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Martin Gruenberg – the FDIC’s No. 2 under former Chairman Sheila Bair – had been acting chief and the nominee to succeed her since the prior summer. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had been without a confirmed head since August 2010. John Walsh had led the OCC as acting comptroller for well over a year.
The NCUA board, meanwhile, remains at two members (Debbie Matz and Michael Fryzel) following the departure of Gigi Hyland earlier this year.
The FDIC board was composed of Gruenberg, Walsh and Thomas Curry, who at the time was a non-executive member of the board and also the nominee for comptroller.
Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which under the Dodd-Frank Act was to assume vast powers and an FDIC seat once it had an appointed director, also had an interim leader, Raj Date.
In January 2012, the administration threw up its hands after being blocked by Senate Republicans and recess-appointed Cordray. The move continues to irk the GOP and bankers, with questions looming over its legality. But Cordray’s hiring at least reduced uncertainty about who called the shots at one of the agencies. In the months since, the CFPB has churned out rules without hesitation.
