Peter Kravitz abruptly quit his job as legislative counsel to the Independent Bankers Association of America last week.
"He has decided to resign and to look elsewhere," said Kenneth A. Guenther, IBAA's executive vice president. The decision, he said, "rested largely with him." Mr. Guenther declined to elaborate on the reason for the departure, and Mr. Kravitz, who was on vacation, could not be reached.
Lobbyists said they were surprised that Mr. Kravitz would leave without having a job lined up. "It is hard to give up a job when you don't have one to go to," one bank lobbyist said.
An industry official said Mr. Kravitz has been seeking greater responsibility at IBAA. When it became apparent early this year that his duties were not going to be expanded, he decided to start looking for a new post, this official said.
"There wasn't a job out there Peter wasn't applying for," the official said.
Mr. Guenther praised Mr. Kravitz's contribution to IBAA during his four- year tenure. "He is a very talented guy and a very talented lawyer," Mr. Guenther said. "We wish him well."
General Accounting Office chief economist James L. Bothwell has decided to take a job at the Federal Housing Finance Board.
As director of the finance board's office of policy, Mr. Bothwell will identify economic trends affecting the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Mr. Bothwell replaces Thomas Sheehan, who left the finance board in February to join the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. Mr. Bothwell starts his new job Dec. 8.
It took years but Jo-Ann Henry of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. finally knocked off her nemesis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Led by Ms. Henry, the FDIC recently won the federal government's 1997 savings bond campaign. It wrenched the crown from HUD, which had reigned as champion for the previous 13 years.
Attorney General Janet Reno, chairwoman of the campaign, presented Ms. Henry with the agency's award Nov. 13.
"It was close, but we were the winner," said Ms. Henry, director of the office of diversity and economic affairs at the FDIC.
Fifty-eight percent of FDIC employees bought savings bonds worth at least $50-edging out HUD by a percentage point.
Downsizing at the FDIC has not destroyed its esprit de corps, Ms. Henry insisted. "Our folks did this despite what's going on at the FDIC."
The local rumor mill already has churned out Raymond W. Kelly, under secretary for enforcement at the Treasury Department, as a candidate for police chief of Washington, D.C.
Larry D. Soulsby, the current chief cop of the nation's capital, resigned Tuesday amid a widening police department scandal. News reports listed Mr. Kelly-a former New York City police commissioner whose duties include overseeing Treasury's anti-money-laundering activities-among four possible replacements for Mr. Soulsby.
He tried to douse the speculation. "Mr. Kelly is happy in his role as under secretary for enforcement," a Treasury spokeswoman said.
James V. McFarland, regional director in New York for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., will retire Jan. 2 after 33 years with the agency.
The 55-year-old Mr. McFarland joined the agency as a bank examiner trainee in Boston and spent his entire career supervising institutions in the Northeast. He was promoted to head the New York region in April 1996.
House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach has appointed newly elected Rep. Vito Fossella to two subcommittees.
The New York Republican will serve on the financial services and consumer credit subcommittee and on the capital markets, securities, and government-sponsored enterprises subcommittee.
Korea's banks are playing a big part in transforming the country's economy from a government-directed system to a market-based one, Bank of Korea Governor Lee Kyung-shik said last week.
Up until the late 1980s, the Korean government maintained tight control over the country's banks, he said. "In this situation, banks were not so careful in reviewing and watching their customers," Mr. Lee told the American Enterprise Institute here.
But once the Korean government started freeing the banks, they slowly developed their credit-screening skills. As a result, they began denying credit to large Korean business conglomerates, many of which in turn became insolvent and consequently contributed to the country's recent economic woes.
Despite the turmoil, Mr. Lee said he was confident the economy would recover its dynamism within a year or two.
"This is the same process as the caterpillar goes through, the pain of turning itself into a butterfly," he said.
