Joseph Otting was confirmed by the Senate for a five-year term as Comptroller of the Currency Thursday, on a vote of 54-43.
Otting, 58, replaces Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika, who was named to that role May 5 by President Trump, after the five-year term of Tom Curry, a former state regulator, expired last spring.
Otting has no previous experience as a regulator. He is a former real estate developer and banker, having worked for Bank of America, Union Bank, U.S. Bank and OneWest Bank.
While working for the latter, he signed a consent decree with the Office of Thrift Supervision (the former federal regulator for federal thrifts and savings and loans; in 2011, the agency was folded into the OCC) regarding the bank’s violations during the 2010 United States foreclosure crisis.
In 2015, he was co-President, CIT Group Inc., and CEO/president of CIT Bank; he was terminated from that position after only five months.