Aging of Work Force Puts Banking Agencies in Bind (Corrected)

Fajt, Marissa, American Banker

As baby boomers prepare for retirement, banking regulatory agencies could be facing an exodus that could leave them without many of their most experienced examiners and managers.

Federal and state agencies say they are monitoring the situation closely and adopting strategies including employee retention programs and the hiring of retirees as outside consultants.

But despite these measures, things could become dire in the next five years. For example, about 65% of the Office of Thrift Supervision's roughly 1,000 employees will be eligible to retire during that time.

"Assuming they retire, it is going to be a tremendous loss of institutional memory," said Gilbert Schwartz, a partner at the Washington law firm Schwartz & Ballen LLP.

The other agencies also face problems, though on a smaller scale. Around 32% of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's 3,000 employees and 30% of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s 4,500 employees will be eligible to retire soon. The Federal Reserve Board is in better shape; only 17% of its 1,700 employees will be eligible to retire by the end of 2011.

State regulatory agencies are in the same bind. Florida's division of financial regulation is …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Aging of Work Force Puts Banking Agencies in Bind (Corrected). Contributors: Fajt, Marissa - Author. Magazine title: American Banker. Volume: 172. Issue: 95 Publication date: May 17, 2007. Page number: 4. © 2009 SourceMedia, Inc. COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group.

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