(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden has appointed Jennifer Fain, formerly of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, to head the inspector general’s office at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as that agency reckons with a workplace sexual harassment scandal, the office announced on Monday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Fain takes over as the top banking regulator faces multiple probes of an allegedly toxic workplace culture where sexual harassment in many cases went unchecked.
The new probes were prompted by a series of investigative reports last year in The Wall Street Journal that led Republican lawmakers to call for FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg’s resignation.
CONTEXT
The FDIC’s Office of Inspector General said in November it planned a “special inquiry” into FDIC leadership’s handling of sexual harassment as well as a review of steps taken to address the problem since a 2020 investigation spotlighted persistent deficiencies.
The FDIC board of directors has also formed a committee to oversee an investigation to be conducted by the law firm Cleary Gottlieb. Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee have likewise launched what they say will be a “rigorous investigation” of the matter.
Fain has served for more than 22 years at various offices of inspectors general, according to Monday’s announcement, and held leadership positions at watchdog offices at the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
