Campaign coverage should feature more questions about who would again feature in a second Trump Administration.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Hauser, hauser@therevolvingdoorproject.org
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and former Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting are set to join the board of New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) as part of a deal to bolster the struggling regional lender. Multiple institutional investors, including a private equity firm founded and led by Mnuchin, are investing more than $1 billion in NYCB. In exchange, the bank is reconstituting its board—reducing it to nine members while naming four new directors, including Mnuchin and Otting, who will also serve as CEO.
As CNBC reports, the agreement comes amid a rocky start to the year for NYCB. After the cash infusion and leadership changes were announced Wednesday, shares of the bank rebounded following a sharp decline earlier in the day. Although a NYCB subsidiary acquired most of Signature Bank’s assets from the FDIC last March, the regional lender is now facing serious problems of its own.
In response to this news, Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser released the following statement:
“It’s no surprise that Steven Mnuchin and Joseph Otting have teamed up again to lead a financial institution. The pair previously worked together as chairman and CEO, respectively, of OneWest, where they repeatedly violated foreclosure laws to boot elderly people with reverse mortgages from their homes.”
“Donald Trump shamelessly rewarded Mnuchin and Otting for their predatory behavior by appointing them to his disastrous administration, which was full of revolvers uncommitted to reining in the exploitative practices they helped perfect” Hauser continued. “At one point, Otting even held two jobs: head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.”
“That Mnuchin and Otting are set to join the board of New York Community Bancorp serves as a potent reminder of the extent to which Trump and his appointees prioritized Wall Street over Main Street during his presidency. Campaign coverage should feature less theater criticism and more questions about whether Mnuchin, Otting, or their doppelgangers would again feature in a second Trump Administration,” he added.
The above photo of former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is in the public domain.