SHREWSBURY, N.J. -- Both the Pennsylvania Banking Department and Connecticut Department of Banking saw new faces in their respective state regulators' chairs in 2006. On Aug. 15, Pennsylvania Banking Secretary A. William Schenck resigned from the government position after three years of service to take a private sector job. Noted for his support of consumer protection initiatives and credit unions during his tenure, Schenck spent a good deal of time working to reform the state's payday lending and mortgage industries. He also increased the number of professional examiners in the department and added an investigations unit that looks into questionable license applications and business practices.
Schenck's office came under fire on several occasions during his time in office from the Pennsylvania Bankers Association and the department was named as a defendant in three cases involving credit unions he approved for expanded community charters--Belco Community CU, Freedom CU and TruMark Financial CU.
The Banking Department's Chief Counsel Victoria Reider is serving as acting secretary until Gov. Edward Rendell announces his permanent appointment to the position.
Meanwhile in Connecticut, State Banking Commissioner John Burke retired at the end of September after nearly 12 years of service.
Burke was appointed commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Banking in 1994, was reappointed in 1999, and was then reappointed to a third term in 2003. That year he helped craft the state's credit union reform bill.
Longtime Department of Banking Administrator Howard Pitkin is currently serving as acting commissioner. In his 29-year career with the agency, Pitkin directed the department's Banking Examination Division, oversaw regulatory policy and department budgets and handled the department's daily operations in the Commissioner's absence. Named Chief of Administration in 2004, Pitkin restructured the department's Bank Examination and Credit Union Divisions into a new Financial Institutions Division.
Pitkin was also involved in the initiative by Connecticut's state-chartered CUs challenging the Internal Revenue Services' interpretation of the unrelated business income tax (UBIT).
In another move by a state regulator, John Smith, who served as director of the Missouri Division of Credit Unions from 1999 to April 2005, returned to the position of administrator for the Kansas Department of Credit Unions effective Feb. 2.
Smith held the same position for the Kansas regulatory agency from 1993-1998. --egbarr06@bellsouth.net
