White House Picks Christy Goldsmith Romero to Lead FDIC

(Bloomberg) -- The White House will nominate Christy Goldsmith Romero to take over as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after a probe found credible allegations of harassment and discrimination at the bank regulator.

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Goldsmith Romero, a Democratic commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since 2022, would be responsible for overhauling a workplace culture at one of the most important financial regulators in the US. Among other things, the FDIC is responsible for handling bank failures.

The FDIC chair position would be a promotion for Goldsmith Romero. Before joining the derivatives regulator, she had led government oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program and served in senior roles at the Securities and Exchange Commission. She would also play a key role in finalizing US rules that would force Wall Street banks to hold significantly more capital.

The FDIC has been at the center of a political firestorm since the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton released a report in May that detailed a toxic workplace at the regulator. Martin Gruenberg, the current chair, buckled to political pressure last month and said he would step down once his successor is confirmed by the Senate.

The Biden administration also announced Thursday that it plans to nominate Kristin Johnson, another Democratic commissioner at the CFTC, for a top role at the US Treasury Department overseeing banks.

If Johnson left her current job without a replacement, Republicans could have a majority — at least temporarily — at the regulator, which oversees swaps and futures trading. That could complicate the agenda of Rostin Behnam, a Democrat who serves as chairman.

The White House said it also plans to nominate Caroline Crenshaw to another term as a commissioner at the SEC. Crenshaw, a Democrat, has been in that seat since 2020.

(Updates starting in fifth graph with other nomination plans.)

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