Trump’s OCC Chief Will Stay Away From Big Banks to Avoid Conflicts
by
Robert Schmidt
June 09, 2017 4:53 PM The new acting chief of one of Washington’s major banking regulators has agreed to stay away from issues involving dozens of former legal clients, including 14 banks that the agency oversees, according to his ethics agreement.
Keith Noreika, who represented lenders as a private lawyer, plans to recuse himself from matters related to JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc., firms the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regulates.
Democratic lawmakers had already questioned whether Noreika’s close ties to the industry would prevent him from being an impartial watchdog. The ethics disclosure, released by the OCC Friday, lays out the scope of his potential conflicts for the first time.
“How can he possibly do his job when he can’t regulate these entities?” Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said in a Friday statement. “Not to mention the fact that he stands to profit from all of these relationships the moment he finishes his work at the OCC.”
Trump NomineeNoreika became comptroller of the currency on a temporary basis last month, leaving his law practice to run the agency until a permanent leader is confirmed by the Senate. This week, President Donald Trump nominated Joseph Otting, a former lieutenant of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s at OneWest Bank, for the OCC post.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-09/trump-occ-chief-will-stay-away-from-big-banks-to-avoid-conflicts
