Diane Casey, executive director of the Independent Bankers Association of America, announced last week that she is leaving to join Grant Thornton, the accounting and management consulting firm.
She has been admitted to the partnership as Grant Thornton's Washington- based national director of financial institution regulatory issues.
Ms. Casey has been No. 2 at the trade group to executive vice president Kenneth A. Guenther.
Leaving "was a very difficult decision, because IBAA is a wonderful organization," she said, but "I am really excited about the opportunity to work with a firm that is so focused on community banks."
The IBAA hired Grant Thornton three years ago to study the costs of red tape for community banks. The study concluded that the Community Reinvestment Act alone costs them $1 billion a year.
The American Bankers Association knows how to hire influence as well as expertise.
Michael Helfer, a longtime banking lawyer with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering here, has been hired to help the ABA build a case for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act.
Beyond knowing bank securities law backward and forward, Mr. Helfer, as of last month, is the husband of the very influential Ricki Tigert Helfer.
The two met during Ms. Helfer's long crusade to become chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Former Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, once a major power on the House Banking Committee, has been indicted on a variety of charges, including bouncing a $16,000 check at the ill-fated House Bank.
The Ohio Democrat's alleged financial improprieties could land her a 40- year prison sentence and a $1.7 million fine if she is convicted on all seven charges in a federal grand jury indictment.
Ms. Oakar is the first member of Congress to be indicted since the House Bank investigation was begun in 1992. Disclosures that she bounced 217 checks on the House Bank led to the defeat of the eight-term legislator.
At the time, she was next in line to chair one of the banking committee's most important subcommittees and was slated to help write the Democratic party's 1992 election platform.
The grand jury impaneled to investigate the bank scandal also charged that Ms. Oakar filed a false financial statement when she did not report a $50,000 loan in 1991, lied to the FBI about asking the House Bank to stop payment on three checks, made false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and used the now defunct House Bank to convert public funds to her own use.
In a written statement, Ms. Oakar vowed to fight the indictment.
"There is no substance to these false and misleading charges," she said. "I expect to be fully vindicated."
It seems Jonathan L. Fiechter, top dog at the Office of Thrift Supervision, has, well, the top dog.
Fritz, his three-year-old Belgian sheep dog, took home "best of breed" honors earlier this month from the Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Garden. Fritz von Hector - Fritz to his family - is a 70-pound jet- black long-haired hound.
The acting OTS director got up at 4:30 one morning to make it to Manhattan in time to watch his pet take home top honors. But he confesses that kudos for Fritz's win should really go to his wife, Julie, who trained him.
Senate Banking Committee chairman Alfonse M. D'Amato is in love, and the New York papers are making the most of it. "The Frog and the Princess" croaked one headline in the New York Post, referring to the Senator and Park Avenue socialite Claudia Cohen.
The Post went on to note that Ms. Cohen is likely to make the senator a "social star." That would complement his rising political star.
In addition to chairing the banking committee, Sen. D'Amato is head of the high-visibility National Republican Senatorial Committee - the organization charged with maintaining the GOP's Senate majority in the next election.
J. Caleb Boggs, former counsel to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, has joined Butera & Andrews, a law and lobbying firm with a number of bank and thrift clients. Mr. Boggs also handled banking issues for the Sen. William V. Roth, R-Del.
Tomorrow marks Brian Gardner's first week as staff director and counsel in the office of Rep. Richard Baker, R-La. Mr. Gardner left his job as legislative assistant for Rep. Rick Lazio, R-N.Y., for whom he handled banking issues.
Delora Ng Jee, now the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's examiner in charge of Chase Manhattan Bank, is going west. She was named deputy comptroller of the OCC's western district in San Francisco.
Ms. Jee reports to Stephen R. Steinbrink, senior deputy comptroller for bank supervision operations in Washington. She succeeds Deputy Comptroller Robert R. Klinzing, who moved to the OCC's Midwestern District in January.
The agency's western office supervises banks in California, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.
David Runkel has been named communications director for the House Banking Committee. He will handle press inquiries along with House Banking's press secretary Joe Pinder, who now reports to Mr. Runkel.
From 1989 to 1991, Mr. Runkel was communications director for the Justice Department. He has also produced cable programs on the gubernatorial and Senate races in Pennsylvania, and has taught journalism at the University of Maryland and American University.
