Lawson Elected as State Liaison Committee Chairman

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s (FFIEC) State Liaison Committee (SLC) today announced the election of Karen Lawson as its Chairman. The SLC Chairman’s term is a one-year period that begins May 1 and runs until April 30 of the following year. The SLC can re-elect the chairman for additional terms.

Lawson is the Director of the Office of Banking for the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services. The office is responsible for the supervision, regulation, and examination of state-chartered banks, savings banks, trust banks, and business and industrial development companies. In addition to these entities, Department of Insurance and Financial Services regulates credit unions, insurance companies and agents, and various consumer finance licensees and registrants.

Lawson joined the State of Michigan as a bank examiner more than 20 years ago, and was appointed to lead the banking program in 2011. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). Lawson has been active on the SLC since 2013, when she was first confirmed by the FFIEC for a two-year term that began on May 1, 2013. On May 1, 2015, Lawson was re-appointed for a second two-year term, which runs through April 30, 2017. During her time on the SLC, Lawson has also served as the SLC representative to the Council’s Task Force on Supervision from January 2014 to August 2014, as the alternate, and August 2014 to April 2016, as a member.

The five-person SLC membership also includes:

• Edward “Joe” Face, Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Financial Institutions, confirmed by the Council;
• Greg Gonzales, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, appointed by the CSBS;
• Mary Hughes, Financial Institutions Bureau Chief of the Idaho Department of Finance, appointed by the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors (NASCUS); and
• Caroline Jones, Commissioner of the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending, appointed by the American Council of State Savings Supervisors (ACSSS).

The FFIEC was created by the Federal Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 to prescribe uniform principles, standards and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions, and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. It also conducts schools for examiners employed by the five federal member agencies represented on the FFIEC and makes those schools available to employees of state agencies that supervise financial institutions.

The FFIEC currently consists of the following six voting members: the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Comptroller of the Currency; a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), appointed by the Chairman of the Board; Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration; and the Chairman of the SLC.

The SLC consists of five representatives of state banking agencies that supervise financial institutions and members are designated from the CSBS, ACSSS, NASCUS, and the Council.