Chief of staff Walsh selected as acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

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Walsh tapped as acting comptroller replacing Dugan

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday it had selected a top staffer at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to head the agency on a temporary basis.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the selection of John G. Walsh, currently the agency’s chief of staff, to be acting head of the bank regulatory agency. He will replace John Dugan who said earlier this month that he was stepping down on Aug. 14 at the end of his term.

The comptroller of the currency regulates 1,500 of the nation’s banks including the largest institutions.

Dugan, who was appointed by George W. Bush in 2005, had come under criticism for pushing policies that benefited the financial industry at the expense of consumers.

Since October 2005, Walsh has been the chief of staff and head of public affairs for the comptroller’s office. He joined the agency after serving as executive director of the Group of 30, a consulting group that focused on international economic and monetary affairs.

Walsh had also worked on the staff of the Senate Banking Committee from 1986 until 1992 and had served as an international economist for the Treasury Department from 1984 to 1986.

Dugan, in his letter to President Barack Obama, said that the OCC deserved credit for helping to stabilize the banking system after the worst crisis in generations. He cited the OCC’s role in administering stress tests to the nation’s biggest banks. Those tests were seen as a turning point in the financial crisis, helping to calm investor fears about the solvency of the large banks.

Dugan came under criticism for blocking states’ attempts to crack down on abusive lending by national banks. He supported the argument that large banks were making that it would be too costly and confusing for banks operating in many states to have to follow different sets of state rules.