Biden taps CFTC commissioner Goldsmith Romero to lead scandal-hit FDIC

By Douglas Gillison and Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will nominate Christy Goldsmith Romero, a Democratic member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to replace Martin Gruenberg as chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the White House said on Thursday.

The intended nomination from the White House comes after Gruenberg, a Democrat, said in May he would step down once a successor is confirmed by the Senate. The FDIC chief succumbed to pressure from lawmakers who said the bank regulator needed fresh leadership after an investigation found widespread sexual harassment and other misconduct at the agency.

Goldsmith Romero, 53, has a background in enforcement and has led major actions against Wall Street banks and other financial firms during her career. She joined the CFTC in March 2022 after a decade investigating financial crime and fraud as the watchdog of a key 2009 financial crisis bailout program.

The White House also said it plans to nominate Kristin Johnson, another Democratic CFTC Commissioner, to be the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial institutions, a key role after three banks failed in 2023. Reuters reported on Wednesday their nominations were imminent, as the Biden administration pushes for first nomination hearings the week of July 8.

In progressive circles, Goldsmith Romero is seen as a strong fit for the FDIC role and as having the management experience and skill set necessary to help fix the agency's "toxic" environment, as the investigation described the FDIC, and address other challenges.

Goldsmith Romero "would bring to the FDIC decades of financial services experience, including valuable experience as the Special Inspector General protecting taxpayers at the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP)," said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who chairs the Banking Committee that will vote on advancing the FDIC nominee.

"She has proven herself to be a strong, independent, and fair regulator who is not afraid to do what's right."

During Goldsmith Romero's tenure as SIGTARP from 2012 to 2022, her office brought cases and cooperated in federal enforcement actions against major corporations, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and General Motors.

Goldsmith Romero also received awards from the U.S. Attorney General and Department of Justice's Criminal Division after her office uncovered a multibillion-dollar fraud, leading to jail terms for former executives at the former mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and the failed Colonial Bank.

"Another day with Martin Gruenberg at the helm of the FDIC is one too many," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, a Republican. "If confirmed, Christy Goldsmith Romero must immediately begin taking steps to reverse the toxic culture overseen by Gruenberg to rebuild trust between FDIC employees and management."

The FDIC is also grappling with the fallout of last year's bank failures, which exposed supervisory weaknesses at the regulator, and is trying to finalize a handful of contentious new rules for Wall Street banks, including major capital hikes.

Goldsmith Romero's nomination, a process that usually takes months, comes at a precarious time politically, just five months ahead of the November general election.

A number of Senate Democrats are up for re-election in narrow races, including Brown, making a potentially contentious confirmation process difficult to navigate. Democrats narrowly control the Senate.

GUILTY ADMISSIONS

As a CFTC commissioner, Goldsmith Romero has advocated for stronger policing of U.S. markets and stiffer penalties for misconduct.

Most notably, she has pushed for the agency to secure more admissions of wrongdoing from companies when settling enforcement actions, particularly from repeat offenders.

"We've seen Wall Street banks get one enforcement action after another ... so I'm looking for a greater deterrent impact," she told Reuters in a 2022 interview.

Prior to being appointed SIGTARP, Goldsmith Romero was counsel to then U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairs Mary Schapiro and Christopher Cox and had investigated securities law violations.

She started her career as a law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Nevada after graduating from Brigham Young University Law School in 1995.

The White House also said Biden intends to nominate Caroline Crenshaw to another term as commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Gordon Ito to be a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

(Additional reporting by Pete Schroeder; editing by Michelle Price and Rod Nickel)