Democrat John Hawke's chances of remaining comptroller of the currency under a Republican White House may have improved--at least in the short run, said banking industry sources rooting for him to be kept on. Hawke, like other heads of sub-agencies under the Treasury Department, has had a one-on-one meeting with new GOP Secretary Paul O'Neill and outsiders are counting on that session to have worked in Hawke's favor. Before this Feb. 23 encounter Hawke and other O'Neill subordinates met with the secretary as a group. An OCC spokesman confirmed the meetings occurred.
Another factor that may be working in Hawke's favor, at least in the near term, is a complicated dilemma facing the administration over the political make-up of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board of directors. There has been press speculation that the Bush Administration would like to replace incumbent FDIC Chairperson Democrat Donna Tannoue with Texas Republican banker Don Powell. But there also is speculation that the White House would like to oust both Hawke and Ellen Seidman, the Clinton appointee to be director of the Office of Thrift Supervision.
The problem for the White House is the FDIC statute says no more than three of the five board seats may be held by members of the same political party. If Tanoue, Hawke and Seidman were all to be replaced there would be no more Democrats on the FDIC's board. The only other member of it currently, John Rich, is a Republican.
The suspicion in Washington is that Seidman, who came out of the Clinton White House, would be pushed out before Hawke, who was a bank lawyer and earlier a Federal Reserve official before Clinton named him comptroller. Last week at OTS a spokesman for Seidman said so far there has been no intimation from the administration that it wants Seidman to leave and she plans to stay until her term expires in October,2002. Hawke's term expires in three and a half years.