The Office of Thrift Supervision has hired Kenneth F. Ryder Jr. away from the Office of Management and Budget. He is now the thrift agency's director for research and analysis, a position created in a recent restructuring.
Washington hands assume Mr. Ryder was in hot demand at the OTS to help the agency weather the storm it anticipates over deposit insurance premiums. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has proposed keeping thrift premiums six times higher than bank premiums by late this year.
Mr. Ryder, a 21-year OMB veteran, was head of the department's Housing, Treasury, and Finance Division. He analyzed budgets, programs, legislative, and regulatory initiatives for the FDIC, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., did not waste much time last week after learning about the derivatives losses incurred by one of Great Britain's oldest banks, Barings PLC.
Last Monday - the day reports surfaced of the nearly $1 billion lost because of unauthorized derivatives trading - Rep. Markey introduced legislation that aims to bring derivatives dealers under federal regulatory authority.
"The Barings PLC fiasco stands as a stark reminder of the disastrous consequences of failing to properly supervise derivatives dealers," Rep. Markey said.
The measure would require derivatives dealers to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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New Jersey Banking Commissioner Elizabeth Randall is up in arms over a proposal in President Clinton's budget proposal to charge state-chartered banks for exams by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve.
"This ill-conceived plan could precipitate a wave of charter flips and damage the dual banking system," Ms. Randall wrote in a letter last week to the chairmen of the House and Senate banking committees.
"Neither the Federal Reserve nor the FDIC is operating with a deficit," Ms. Randall added. "Both agencies are self-supporting. Therefore, what is the justification for this tax?"
State banks with assets of less than $100 million would be exempt from the proposal.
At a Women in Housing and Finance symposium held here last week, House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach, R-Iowa, said he is firmly against the proposal, calling it "mischievous."
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Barry C. Melancon is the new president of the American Institute of Public Accountants - the organization's first new head in 15 years. Mr. Melancon (pronounced ma-LAHN-son) has been executive director of the Louisiana Society of CPAs since 1987. His five-year term with the AICPA starts July 1.
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The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has promoted William J. Tignanelli to senior vice president in charge of the Baltimore office. A 15-year Fed veteran, Mr. Tignanelli previously served as second-in-command of the Baltimore office. He replaces Ronald B. Duncan, who retired after 38 years with the Fed.
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Herbert L. Baer Jr., a longtime Chicago Fed economist who came to Washington two years ago to work for the World Bank, died late last month of injuries suffered after his bicycle was hit by a car.
The 39-year-old was an assistant vice president in the Chicago Fed's research division, and is perhaps best known for organizing the Chicago Fed's spring conference on bank structure and competition.
