Biden to nominate Christy Goldsmith Romero as FDIC chairman after predecessor’s abrupt departure

President Joe Biden will nominate Christy Goldsmith Romero to replace Martin Greunberg as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, after Gruenberg’s tenure was marred by allegations of workplace abuse that led him to resign

NEW YORK — President Joe Biden will nominate Christy Goldsmith Romero to replace Martin Greunberg as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, after Gruenberg’s tenure became marred by allegations of workplace abuse which led him to resign.

Longtime financial regulator Goldsmith Romero is currently a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the nation’s financial derivatives regulator, and previously worked with the Treasury Department. She is also a law professor at Georgetown University.

His previous appointments to the country’s financial regulators were unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

“She has proven herself to be a strong, independent and fair regulator who is not afraid to do what is right,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement.

Gruenberg said last month he would resign from the FDIC following an independent report from the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton found incidents of stalking, harassment, homophobia and other violations of employment regulations, based on more than 500 employee complaints.

The complaints included a woman who said she was stalked by a co-worker and continually harassed even after complaining about his behavior; a field office supervisor referring to gay men as “little girls”; and a field examiner who described receiving a photo of her private parts from a senior FDIC examiner.

The FDIC is one of several regulators of the U.S. banking system. The Great Depression-era agency is best known for managing the nation’s deposit insurance program, which insures Americans’ deposits of up to $250,000 in case their bank fails.