WASHINGTON — The White House is poised to nominate community banker and academic Allan Landon to one of the two vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board, according to sources.
TheNew York Timesfirst reported that Landon had received the nod from the White House, andAmerican Bankerindependently confirmed the pick with sources familiar with the situation. The White House is expected to make an official announcement later in the day on Tuesday.
Landon, who currently serves as a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Mãnoa Law School, previously served as chief executive officer of the Bank of Hawaii Corp. from 2004 to 2010. The Bank of Hawaii Corp. manages $14.5 billion in total assets, according to its third-quarter 2014 financial statement. The bank experienced rapid growth since Landon's tenure. It held just $3 billion in assets in 2009, according to the company's website.
Prior to heading the bank, Landon held various positions in its upper management beginning in 2001, according to his official biography. Landon also served as chief financial officer of First American Corp. from 1998 to 2000 and as a partner of Ernst & Young from 1984 to 1998.
Landon, a relative unknown in Washington, will fill one of two vacancies that have been open on the Fed Board since former Gov. Jeremy Stein resigned to return to Harvard University. Former Gov. Sarah Bloom left the board last March to serve as Deputy Treasury Secretary.
Several lawmakers from both parties had pressured the White House to use at least one of the vacancies to nominate someone with community banking experience. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., penned a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last November calling on the White House to nominate "Wall Street outsiders" to fill the board's vacancies. Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., likewise called for greater community banking experience to be reflected in the White House's nominations to the Fed.
