Office Of Thrift Supervision

The Office of Thrift Supervision has named Jonathan Fiechter, deputy director of Washington operations, to succeed Timothy Ryan as director of the thrift regulator. Ryan, whose resignation was effective Friday, had served as director since April 9, 1990. He has not said what he plans to do after leaving office. Fiechter was deputy executive director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board's Office of Regulatory Activities from 1987 to 1989, when he moved to the OTS.

The former head of the chief banking regulatory agency that oversaw failed Washington Mutual told lawmakers Friday that the giant savings and loan collapsed because of a run on the bank, not failures by him or other regulators. The testimony of John Reich, who served as head of the Office of Thrift Supervision from 2005 to 2009, came as a Senate subcommittee released the results of an 18-month investigation that blasted regulatory supervisors for doing little to halt risky practices at WaMu that bank examiners had identified as early as 2003.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday against Charles H. Keating Jr. in an effort to force the former operator of failed Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn. of Irvine to turn over an audited accounting of his assets. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks to obtain court enforcement of an administrative order issued last week by the Office of Thrift Supervision for an accounting of Keating's assets.

A federal thrift regulator bungled its oversight of Downey Savings & Loan, allowing the Newport Beach thrift to pile on billions of dollars in high-risk mortgages and eventually collapse, according to a government report. The regulators from the beleaguered Office of Thrift Supervision also botched their oversight of Pomona-based PFF Bank & Trust, which collapsed along with Downey last fall, according to reports issued this week by the U.S. Treasury Department's inspector general.

The Office of Thrift Supervision said Wednesday that the agency has more than tripled to $130.9 million the amount of restitution it is seeking from Charles H. Keating Jr. and six associates linked to the failure of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan. At the same time, federal regulators said they lowered by $3.2 million the amount of restitution sought from Thomas Spiegel, former chief executive of Columbia Savings & Loan in Beverly Hills, to $21.3 million.

President Bush's 34-year-old son, Neil, is being charged in an administrative proceeding with conflicts of interest while a director of a failed Colorado savings and loan, the government said Friday. The announcement came amid reports that the President is nearing a decision on appointing a new chairman of the Office of Thrift Supervision. The President's appointee ultimately will decide whether to uphold the action against his son.

The former head of the chief banking regulatory agency that oversaw failed Washington Mutual told lawmakers Friday that the giant savings and loan collapsed because of a run on the bank, not failures by him or other regulators. The testimony of John Reich, who served as head of the Office of Thrift Supervision from 2005 to 2009, came as a Senate subcommittee released the results of an 18-month investigation that blasted regulatory supervisors for doing little to halt risky practices at WaMu that bank examiners had identified as early as 2003.

Low interest rates pushed up the earnings of U.S. thrifts by 41% to a record $3 billion during the first three months of this year, the Office of Thrift Supervision said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner named John E. Bowman acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates the savings and loan industry. Scott M. Polakoff, formerly acting director, is on leave, pending a review by the Treasury Department of the OTS' actions last year "related to post-period capital contributions," the agency said Thursday in an e-mailed statement. Bowman was deputy director and chief counsel at the OTS.

After selling her Orange County home, Cheryl Hodgson parked an escrow check for about $360,000 with IndyMac Bancorp. Less than a month later, the Pasadena-based thrift was seized by the federal government -- and Hodgson lost $130,000. "I looked around at the interest rates and saw that IndyMac was offering a really good rate," Hodgson said. "You would think someone at the bank could have explained to me that I was putting in money well above the insurance limit."

Federal regulators ignored repeated warning signs about Pasadena's IndyMac Bancorp., and their failure to prevent the mortgage lender's collapse last summer cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $10.7 billion, according to a government report released Thursday. The report by the Treasury Department's inspector general said regulators should have seen that IndyMac was built on a house of cards -- shaky loans based on inflated property values.

Federal regulators said Friday that they had allowed four thrifts besides failed IndyMac Bank to improperly backdate infusions of capital. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, did not identify the four S&Ls. The thrift regulator is an arm of the Treasury Department. The Times reported Dec. 23 that Treasury investigators had found that Darrel W.

Downey Financial Corp. has been under intense regulatory scrutiny since at least June, according to filings it made with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The investigation and pressure from the Office of Thrift Supervision may explain abrupt management changes by the Newport Beach-based lender and its decision to seek a capital infusion or a sale. Downey, hurt by a surge in mortgage defaults, was talking with the Office of Thrift Supervision in June about boosting its reserves, according to the filings.

Nearly 1 million individuals and businesses filed bankruptcy in the 12 months ended June 30, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court data released Wednesday. There were 967,831 bankruptcy cases filed since July 1, 2007, up 28.9% from the prior 12 months, when cases totaled 751,056. The largest percentage increase, 60.9%, was in the court system's ninth district, which includes California, Arizona and Nevada, states where the housing meltdown has been especially severe. Filings spiked to 276,510 in the three months ended June 30 to the highest level of quarterly filings since late 2006.

"The government knows exactly what Charlie is worth," he added. "They are trying to get blood out of a turnip. He is not worth 40 cents, let alone $40 million." --Bradley J. Boland, a spokesman for American Continental and a son-in-law of Charles H. Keating Jr., in response to the Office of Thrift Supervision order to Keating to pay $40.9 million in restitution for allegedly diverting funds from failed Lincoln S&L.

Low interest rates pushed up the earnings of U.S. thrifts by 41% to a record $3 billion during the first three months of this year, the Office of Thrift Supervision said.

The former chief regulator for the U.S. savings and loan industry and another former government official have been appointed to the board of directors of Realty World Holding Corp., the company announced Tuesday. Danny Wall, former director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, is the owner of MDW Consulting, a financial, real estate and legislative consulting firm in Salt Lake City. Caspar Weinberger Jr.