Dugan tapped to head OCC
President George W. Bush tapped lawyer and former Treasury Department official John Dugan to be Comptroller of the Currency and oversee regulation of some of the largest US banks, the White House said in late February.
Dugan, if confirmed by the Senate, will play a central role in helping US banks adapt to the international Basel II accord aimed at bolstering the solvency of the world's banking system, Reuters news agency reported.
The rules don't take effect in the US until 2008, when some 20 or so of the largest US banks, representing the bulk of the country's banking assets, are expected to adopt the complex, risk-focused Basel II capital adequacy requirements. The rest of the US banking system, comprising thousands of banks, will remain under the current, and simpler, Basel I capital rules that date from 1988.
US bank regulators and banks are combing the Basel II agreement for any provisions that put US-based banks at a disadvantage to international competitors.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan reiterated earlier in February that the US would seek changes if analysis shows the accord hindering US banks in the financial services marketplace.
Dugan would also face grumbling from state officials -including New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - who say federal regulators are grabbing power away from local authorities in supervising banks, at consumers' expense.
Dugan's nomination may face a political challenge from a senior US Senate Democrat, Max Baucus of Montana, who has threatened to obstruct senior Treasury Department nominees unless the president reverses rules Baucus believes will slow agricultural exports to Cuba.
The White House said the nomination of Dugan, a partner in the D.C. office of law firm Covington and Burling, which specialises in banking regulation, is for a five-year term.
Dugan was assistant Treasury secretary for domestic finance during the administration of George H.W. Bush. And he was Republican general counsel to the Senate Banking Committee before that, according to a resume on Covington and Burling's Web site.
Julie Williams is currently Acting Comptroller of the Currency pending the appointment of a replacement for John (Gerry) Hawke, who retired as Comptroller in October.
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