Three new candidates emerge to head OCC

WASHINGTON — The field of candidates to be the Biden administration's nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has grown to as many as six people with the addition of two Obama-era financial regulators and a Federal Reserve bank president, say sources familiar with the situation.

The emergence this week of three additional names — Kara Stein, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Sarah Bloom Raskin, formerly a Federal Reserve Board governor and deputy secretary of the Treasury; and Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta — suggests the selection process is more fluid than had been presumed recently, the sources say.

The other candidates previously reported to be in the running were Michael Barr, a former Treasury official and professor at the University of Michigan; Mehrsa Baradaran, a former banking lawyer and professor at the University of California, Irvine; and Manny Alvarez, commissioner of California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

Bloomberg

Earlier this month, American Banker reported Baradaran, a progressive known for her scholarship on the racial wealth gap, to be the administration’s top pick to lead the OCC, replacing Barr as the position’s front-runner. It is unclear whether the consideration of Raskin, Bostic and Stein means that Baradaran's chances have diminished or, if so, by how much.

The Atlanta Fed declined to comment about the reported consideration of Bostic. Raskin and Stein did not respond to requests for comment.

Comptroller of the currency is a powerful position as the OCC, which regulates national banks, overseeing roughly 70% of the banking industry's assets; also, the comptroller does not have to answer to a board as do the leaders of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The OCC is currently led by acting Comptroller Blake Paulson, who was promoted from chief operating officer to succeed Brian Brooks, who stepped down in January.

Shortly after Biden's election, some analysts argued a Democratic comptroller would have a key role to play in teeing up progressive policies before Republican appointees at other agencies cycle out of government in the coming years. But whomever the Biden administration selects would need to viable in a sharply divided Senate, where Democrats have a one-vote majority.

Raskin, currently a visiting professor and senior fellow at Duke University, was initially in the running as a potential acting comptroller, one source familiar with the situation said. In February, The Wall Street Journal named Raskin as a potential “climate czar” under Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

As the second-in-command at Treasury in the Obama administration, Raskin ran the sprawling department, and as a Fed member was outspoken about income inequality and financial oversight.

Raskin's husband is Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who was the lead manager of the second House impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

As president of the Atlanta Fed, Bostic has emerged as a forceful advocate for racial justice in the financial system. After the police killing of George Floyd, Bostic urged the Federal Reserve System to promote “maximum employment” to help address inequality. He was previously a policy professor at the University of Southern California.

Stein, who is listed as a lecturer-in-law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, previously served as a staffer on the Senate Banking Committee, legal counsel to Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and a legislative assistant to former Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

At the SEC, Stein advocated for strong consumer protections and criticized a 2018 proposal for not going far enough in requiring brokers to put customers’ financial interests ahead of their own.