© Reuters. The Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Corp (FDIC) brand is seen on the FDIC headquarters as Chairman Sheila Bair pronounces the financial institution and thrift trade earnings for the fourth quarter 2010, in Washington, February 23, 2011. REUTERS/Jason Reed
(Reuters) -A prime U.S. banking regulator confronted mounting strain on Thursday over his dealing with of allegations of sexual misconduct amongst company workers, with Republican officers vowing a radical probe and insisting on his recusal from an inside investigation.
The gathering controversy adopted media reporting earlier this week based on which the U.S. Federal Desposit Insurance coverage Company had did not eradicate widespread harassment in its workforce.
In congressional testimony this week, FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg stated he discovered the reviews personally troubling and vowed to take corrective motion as a prime precedence, including that the company had efficiently acted on suggestions from an inside watchdog in 2020 however that extra work remained to be carried out.
Gruenberg didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In a press release, FDIC Vice Chairman Travis Hill and board member Jonathan McKernan stated that “at a minimum” Gruenberg and FDIC Common Counsel Harrel Pettway ought to recuse themselves from the inner evaluate of office conduct on the company.
That assertion got here two hours after FDIC officers abruptly introduced the cancellation of a Thursday public assembly at which board members had been as a result of contemplate a proposal on recouping losses from the failure of enormous banks earlier this yr.
The Wall Avenue Journal on Monday reported allegations of sexual misconduct amongst workers between 2010 and 2022 at company outposts nationwide, citing interviews with greater than 20 ladies who had stop.
In a separate assertion, Patrick McHenry, the Republican chair of the Home Monetary Companies Committee, introduced his committee would conduct a “rigorous investigation, including hearings, oversight and transcribed interviews.”
“It is clear Mr. Gruenberg never should have been reappointed or confirmed in the first place,” McHenry stated.
McHenry additionally stated Gruenberg had “initially misled” the committee throughout testimony on Wednesday, at first claiming he had not been the topic of an investigation to his office conduct earlier than acknowledging that he had.
