TRENTON, N.J. — The Garden State will soon have a new banking commissioner.
Ken Kobylowski will step down "over the next several weeks" as the New Jersey Commissioner of Banking and Insurance, Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday.
Christie did not provide a reason for Kobylowski's departure and a department spokesperson declined to give a specific date for when he will leave.
Christie will nominate Richard Badolato, a civil litigator and former president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, to succeed Kobylowski. Badolato is expected to begin work as state bank commissioner on Aug. 1.
Kobylowski has been New Jersey's banking commissioner, both on an acting and confirmed basis, since January 2012. He joined the state banking department as chief of staff in February 2010. He previously was a banking attorney with the firm Herrick, Feinstein.
No Changes for CUs
For New Jersey credit unions, nothing is expected to change.
Christian M. Abeel, vice president of corporate & governmental affairs at the New Jersey Credit Union League noted that state-chartered credit unions in New Jersey fall under the purview of the Office of Consumer Finance, one of the units of the Division of Banking, itself a segment of the Department of Banking & Insurance (DOBI).
"The director of the Division of Banking reports to the commissioner," Abeel told Credit Union Journal. "That individual [Patrick Mullen] is not changing. The assistant director of the Office of Consumer Finance [Thomas Hunt] who oversees the regulation of state chartered credit unions and reports to Mullen is not changing either."
Nonetheless, Abeel praised Badolato.
"Richard Badolato has extremely impressive credentials and we look forward to working with him," he said. "We've had a good working relationship with DOBI under Commissioner Kobylowski's leadership and we have every reason to expect that will continue."
