Yellen picks top Fed banking regulator as acting comptroller

WASHINGTON — Michael J. Hsu, a top banking regulator at the Federal Reserve, was appointed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday as acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency.

Yellen said that she planned to designate Hsu as first deputy comptroller, which allows him to become acting comptroller.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is the agency within the Treasury that regulates all national banks in the country.

When Hsu takes the deputy’s job on Monday he will assume the role of acting comptroller, Yellen said.

Under the law, the comptroller is appointed by the president with confirmation required by the Senate. The Treasury secretary is responsible for appointing up to four deputy comptrollers and designating one as the first deputy comptroller with the power to perform the duties of the comptroller on an acting basis if the comptroller’s job is vacant.

The choice of Hsu as acting comptroller allows the Biden administration to have someone in a key banking regulatory post until it can resolve an internal administration debate about who will take the job permanently.

Progressives raised strong objections when it was reported that the Biden administration was considering Michael Barr for the comptroller job. Barr served at the Treasury Department during the Obama administration.

In a statement announcing the appointment of an acting comptroller, Yellen praised the job Hsu had done while regulating the nation’s largest bank holding companies while at the Fed.

“Mike has devoted his career to the stability and supervision of America’s banking system,” Yellen said in a prepared statement. “He is among the most talented and principled regulatory officials that I have had the pleasure of working with.”