A report on office tradition on the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company launched on Tuesday revealed a broad, yearslong sample of sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse of principally ladies and members of minority teams by senior officers. The findings are prone to result in one other doubtlessly bruising spherical of questions for the company’s chair, Martin Gruenberg, who’s scheduled to testify in Congress later this month.
The report mentioned the dangerous habits at F.D.I.C., which has the authority to watch the well being and stability of all U.S. banks however extra intently oversees smaller establishments, affected “far too many staff” and went on “far too lengthy.”
The company’s issues had been attributable to “a patriarchal, insular, and risk-averse tradition” and a “lack of readability and credibility round inside reporting channels,” mentioned the report, ready by the regulation agency Cleary Gottlieb. It described “fiefdoms” in regional workplaces, the place senior managers protected different longtime staff from potential penalties stemming from extra junior staff’ claims of mistreatment.
Examples of the habits, together with senior examiners texting junior ladies photos of their genitalia or taking them to brothels, had been first reported by The Wall Road Journal in November. Tuesday’s report was the results of an impartial investigation by Cleary Gottlieb, which was employed by a particular committee created by the company’s board after The Journal’s report.
The report questioned whether or not Mr. Gruenberg, who has labored on the company for nearly twenty years and led it for 10 of the final 13 years, may successfully proceed in his function.
“The incidents of — and ensuing popularity for — dropping his mood and expressing anger with employees,” it mentioned, “might hinder his capability to determine belief and confidence in main significant tradition change.” The report additionally cited Mr. Gruenberg’s “obvious incapacity or unwillingness to acknowledge how others expertise sure tough interactions with him.”
In a memo to F.D.I.C. staffers on Tuesday that was shared with The New York Instances, Mr. Gruenberg apologized for his habits.
“To anybody who skilled sexual harassment or different misconduct on the F.D.I.C., I once more need to categorical how very sorry I’m. I additionally need to apologize for any shortcomings on my half. As chairman, I’m finally answerable for all the pieces that occurs at our company, together with our office tradition,” he wrote.
The report didn’t advocate that Mr. Gruenberg step down or be eliminated. It prescribed new techniques for safeguarding victims of abuse, a brand new function to watch tradition, extra coaching to enhance office habits and higher reporting techniques for workers experiencing mistreatment.
But it surely may gas new requires Mr. Gruenberg to depart. Republicans in Congress have been pushing for him to resign since final fall, whereas Democrats criticized his habits as reported by The Journal and known as for an impartial investigation.
Greater than Mr. Gruenberg’s profession is at stake. Financial institution executives and lobbyists, who usually oppose a brand new plan proposed by federal regulators to extend capital necessities on the biggest establishments, imagine that if Mr. Gruenberg leaves the F.D.I.C., there is not going to be sufficient assist for the plan left among the many different regulators and it must be scrapped.
Mr. Gruenberg is about to testify earlier than the Home Monetary Providers Committee on Could 15 and the Senate Banking Committee on Could 16 in semiannual hearings on monetary regulation.