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FDIC Chief Earned Rep As A Consumer Advocate

MELISSA BLOCK, Host:

NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports on the high-profile head of a normally low-profile agency.

YUKI NOGUCHI: Sheila Bair likes seeing herself as a populist.

BLOCK: Time magazine called me the champion of the little guy, when they named me to their Top 100 list for 2008, and I did like that.

NOGUCHI: Bair saw herself as a defender of the average American at a time when she felt Washington was paying too much attention to Wall Street.

BLOCK: We do relate to Main Street folks who have their deposits in banks. And it's our job, first and foremost, to protect those depositors - not to protect banks, but to protect those depositors.

NOGUCHI: Bair is a Republican but her pro-regulatory stance sometimes puts her at odds with her party.

BLOCK: In the early to mid-2000s, deregulation had been in vogue for a long time and we clearly went too far with that and forgot that, you know, I'm all for free markets but I'm not for free-for-all markets. And you need some basic rules of the road. And you need regulators - strong, robust regulators to enforce those rules of the road.

NOGUCHI: In fact, Bair's reputation as a consumer advocate made her a darling of the liberal left.

BLOCK: She was like a godsend.

NOGUCHI: John Taylor is president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

BLOCK: Given that she even talked about the issues that we cared about, that she was vocal about them and often on the same side of the ledger as consumer advocates - so yeah, I mean it was a breath of fresh air and we're going to really miss her.

NOGUCHI: As part of recent Wall Street reforms, Bair's FDIC gained the power to monitor and, if necessary, unwind troubled non-bank institutions. Bair argued it's an important way to manage systemic financial risk. But Bair's positions have angered the banking industry.

BLOCK: Well, I'm not a fan of Sheila Bair's.

NOGUCHI: Bert Ely is a banking industry consultant and perhaps Bair's most vocal critic. Among his complaints: Bair's support for requiring that banks set aside more capital to offset risk.

BLOCK: Under Sheila, the FDIC has lived up to its nickname of Forever Demanding Increased Capital. And I don't have any problem with independence, as long as it's based on sound judgment. I feel that in many cases that's not true, as far as Sheila's concern.

NOGUCHI: Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Yuki Noguchi is a correspondent on the Science Desk based out of NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C. She started covering consumer health in the midst of the pandemic, reporting on everything from vaccination and racial inequities in access to health, to cancer care, obesity and mental health.