The President of the United States decides who he wants to serve as
FDIC Chairman. If the United States Senate agrees with the President's
choice, that person becomes the FDIC Chairman for five years.
Martin J. Gruenberg was named Acting Chairman of the FDIC on July 8, 2011. Mr. Gruenberg was sworn in as Vice Chairman of the FDIC Board of Directors on August 22, 2005. Upon the resignation of Chairman Donald Powell, he served as Acting Chairman from November 15, 2005 to June 26, 2006. On November 2, 2007, Mr. Gruenberg was named Chairman of the Executive Council and President of the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI).
Mr. Gruenberg joined the FDIC Board after broad congressional experience in the financial services and regulatory areas. He served as Senior Counsel to Senator Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) on the staff of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from 1993 to 2005. Mr. Gruenberg advised the Senator on issues of domestic and international financial regulation, monetary policy and trade. He also served as Staff Director of the Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy from 1987 to 1992. Major legislation in which Mr. Gruenberg played an active role during his service on the Committee includes the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 (FDICIA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Mr. Gruenberg holds a J.D. from Case Western Reserve Law School and an A.B. from Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Thomas J. Curry
Thomas J. Curry took office on January 12, 2004, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for a six-year term. Mr. Curry serves as Chairman of the FDIC’s Assessment Appeals Committee and Case Review Committee.
Mr. Curry also serves as the Chairman of the NeighborWorks® America Board of Directors. NeighborWorks® America is a national non-profit organization chartered by Congress to provide financial support, technical assistance, and training for community-based neighborhood revitalization efforts.
Prior to joining the FDIC’s Board of Directors, Mr. Curry served five Massachusetts Governors as the Commonwealth’s Commissioner of Banks from 1990 to 1991 and from 1995 to 2003. He served as Acting Commissioner from February 1994 to June 1995. He previously served as First Deputy Commissioner and Assistant General Counsel within the Massachusetts Division of Banks. He entered state government in 1982 as an attorney with the Massachusetts’ Secretary of State's Office.
Director Curry served as the Chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors from 2000 to 2001. He served two terms on the State Liaison Committee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, including a term as Committee chairman.
He is a graduate of Manhattan College (summa cum laude), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree from the New England School of Law.
Congress said the outside directors must be the Comptroller of the Currency and the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, which means these officials also run the national bank and savings institution supervision programs from their offices in the Department of Treasury.
John Walsh
John Walsh became Acting Comptroller of the Currency on August 16, 2010.
Mr. Walsh has served as the OCC's Chief of Staff and Public Affairs since 2005 included direct engagement in all aspects of the agency's operations. He joined the OCC from the Group of Thirty, a consultative group that focuses on international economic and monetary affairs, and was its executive director when he left to join the OCC. Mr. Walsh served on the staff of the Senate Banking Committee from 1986 to 1992, and as an International Economist for the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1984 to 1986. He also served with the Office of Management and Budget as an International Program Analyst, with the Mutual Broadcasting System, and in the U.S. Peace Corps in Ghana.
Mr. Walsh holds a master's degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1978), and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1973.
So, that is the FDIC Board of Directors and a brief description of the types of people who are working to protect the money deposited at FDIC-insured banks and savings institutions. It's a big job. The FDIC protects over $7 trillion on deposit in over 7,700 financial institutions. You can tell if a bank or savings institution is insured because they must have one of these stickers on their door:
There is one important thing to remember about the FDIC. The
FDIC does not protect banks and savings institutions. These are businesses
and their owners must make sure they are earning money. If they aren't earning
money, they fail and go out of business. When they fail the FDIC is there
to protect you and all of the other depositors the FDIC insures. If the
bank fails we make sure the money in every deposit account up to $250,000
is returned to the right depositor.
