“I am calling for the FDIC’s Office of the Inspector General to conduct an independent and thorough investigation into the workplace culture at the agency,” Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said this week.
Brown called the recent reports by The Wall Street Journal “extremely concerning.”
The Wall Street Journal’s investigation of the FDIC involved interviews with more than 100 current and former employees, including more than 20 women who left the agency, according to the paper.
“Female examiners left the FDIC because of what they say was a sexualized, boys’ club environment and the belief they were consistently given fewer opportunities than their male counterparts,” the Journal’s investigation found.
The reports also raised concerns about FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg’s management of the agency.
FDIC employees told the Journal that Gruenberg “set a tone that left alleged harassment and discrimination unpunished at the bank regulator.”
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said Thursday that Gruenberg “has a lot of explaining to do.”
“Yesterday, he initially misled the Committee regarding an investigation into his own alleged misconduct. In light of the most recent reporting from the Wall Street Journal, his subsequent cleanup job was a clear understatement.”
Republicans in particular have been taking the opportunity to blast the FDIC, riding a wave of disapproval toward financial regulators that swelled earlier this year after the biggest collapses in the banking sector since the 2007-08 financial failures.
The Hill’s Tobias Burns has more here.
