SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Department of Financial Institutions, which has authority over 160 state chartered credit unions, said William Haraf, its commissioner since 2008, has resigned effective Thursday.
At the same time Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown named Teveia Barnes, a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP in San Francisco and executive director of Lawyers For One America, as new DFI Commissioner. Her new position pays $142,965 a year.
Haraf was appointed Commissioner of Financial Institutions by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on March 10, 2008, when he was a finance professor at University of California, Davis. Before that he worked as managing director at Banc of America Securities; senior vice president of strategic policy development and planning for Bank of America; and as director of policy analysis with Citicorp.
Haraf’s days as California’s chief financial regulator were harried, coming during the state’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. More credit unions failed in California than any other state during the time.
