Bernanke, Cohn among five added to FDIC advisory panel on resolution of systemically important firms

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Gary Cohn, the former top economic advisor for the Trump administration, are among the five individuals named Thursday to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee (SRAC), created in 2011 to advise the agency on issues regarding the resolution of systemically important financial companies.

The FDIC says the panel is intended to facilitate discussion on how the FDIC’s resolution authority granted under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) may impact covered entities and others.

Bernanke served two terms as the Fed’s chairman, having been appointed to that post by Presidents Bush and Obama, and resigned in January 2014. He has also chaired the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. He is now a Distinguished Fellow in residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

Cohn is the former Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and former director of the National Economic Council, having held those positions from January 2017 to April 2018. He was president and chief operating officer of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from 2006 to 2016.

The agency said members of the SRAC have a wide range of experience managing complex firms; administering bankruptcies; and working in the legal system, accounting field, and academia. Named to the panel alongside Bernanke and Cohn were Robert Drain, United States bankruptcy judge, Southern District of New York; Timothy J. Mayopoulos, president of the technology firm Blend and former president and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae; and Sandie O’Connor, former chief regulatory affairs officer for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The other 11 members are:

  • Sheila C. Bair, former FDIC chairman;
  • Michael C. Bodson, president and chief executive officer, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation;
  • Shelley C. Chapman, U.S. bankruptcy judge, Southern District of New York;
  • Rodgin Cohen, senior chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP;
  • William H. Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
  • Peter R. Fisher, senior fellow of the Center for Global Business and Government at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University;
  • Richard J. Herring, co-director of The Wharton Financial Institutions Center and Professor of Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania;
  • Donald Kohn, former Fed Board vice chairman senior fellow of the Economic Studies Program, Brookings Institution;
  • Douglas L. Peterson, president and chief executive officer of S&P Global;
  • John S. Reed, former chairman and CEO of Citigroup and former chairman of the Corporation of Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
  • Gary H. Stern, former CEO and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and presiding director and chair of the Board Risk Committee at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.

The advisory committee can have as many as 20 members, with members serving up to two years. The committee’s charter is up for renewal next year.

FDIC Names Five New Members to Its Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee

SRAC information