Top Thrift Figure To Head Ailing FHLB

The financially troubled Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle announced last week it has named James Gilleran, former director of the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision and chief banking regulator for the state of California, as its new president and CEO. Gilleran, who left the OTS last month, will begin work June 1 at an FHLB that has been plagued by an insider trading scandal and declining financials in recent weeks. He will succeed Norman Rice, the former mayor of Seattle, who resigned as CEO of the Seattle bank in February.

The bank, facing $260 million in losses on its investment portfolio, signed a supervisory agreement last month with its federal regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Board, barring it from paying any dividends for three years or approving any stock redemptions before the mandatory five-year redemption. Last month two directors of the bank resigned after it was revealed their banks redeemed $74 million in stock while news of the FHLB's declining financials was pending, but not yet public. The Seattle bank has 374 members, including 79 credit unions.

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