Posted on: Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Ex-FDIC chief Tanoue joins Bankoh trustees
Advertiser Staff
Donna Tanoue, former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has been elected to the Bank of Hawai'i board of directors.
Tanoue is working as a financial services consultant. She was appointed by President Clinton to head the FDIC from May 1998 to July 2001, overseeing the federal banking agency that monitors nearly 5,700 banks and insures $3 trillion in deposits.
"(Donna's) outstanding credentials and reputation, along with her knowledge and perspective of banking issues, will enhance and complement the expertise that exists on our board," said Michael O'Neill, chairman and chief executive of Bank of Hawai'i.
It was under Tanoue's leadership at the FDIC that the Bank of Hawai'i signed a Memorandum of Understanding with banking regulators that increased federal oversight of the bank's operations because of asset quality problems.
Tanoue said federal rules prohibit her from representing the bank before the agency she once headed.
"Now that I have left the agency, I operate under certain constraints. I am going to be very mindful of the ethical limitations which govern post-employment after you have left the FDIC," Tanoue said yesterday.
During Tanoue's tenure at the FDIC, she also instituted efforts to reduce the agency's work force and budget, as well as create a diversity program within the FDIC. During her tenure the agency's staffing has declined 16.6 percent, to 6,500, and its budget is 6 percent smaller this year than it was last year.
But after four years of overseeing the agency that provides insurance for 5,700 banks and thrifts nationwide, Tanoue said her greatest accomplishment was recommending reforms to the deposit insurance system.
Before joining the FDIC, Tanoue was a partner in the Hawai'i law firm Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel, where she specialized in banking, real estate finance and governmental affairs.
President Bush nominated Texas bank executive Donald E. Powell to succeed Tanoue.
