Linda Spillers for The New York Times
John D. Hawke Jr., the comptroller of the currency, making a point in his office last week. His tenure is to be examined today and tomorrow by Congressional panels.
By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN
Published: June 2, 2004
tiny wooden canary in the Washington office of John D. Hawke Jr. serves as a reminder of the proverbial canary in a coal mine, doomed to perish as a warning sign of pending danger.
Mr. Hawke, the comptroller of the currency and one of the country's most powerful regulators, is responsible for gauging the financial well-being of national banks. To make sure that his agency was looking for signs of trouble, he ordered an overhaul of his agency's early-warning systems and called it Project Canary.
But as he approaches the end of his six-year tenure as comptroller, those efforts are under scrutiny. Mr. Hawke and his agency have drawn withering criticism on Capitol Hill for failing to fix longstanding compliance problems at the Riggs National Corporation. Riggs, a Washington-based banking company that has long been a favorite of diplomats and government officials, is caught up in sprawling federal investigations of suspected money laundering and terrorist financing through its accounts.
Mr. Hawke also tangled with state regulators when he issued guidelines in February saying that his agency has the upper hand in enforcing lending laws. The action put him on a collision course with state officials including the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, who say that the comptroller's guidelines favor banks and weaken consumer protection.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/business/02hawke.html?ex=1086840000&en=cc813b1ea9972a08&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE