The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to announce Distinguished Senior Fellow Thomas Hoenig will serve as a member of the American Association of Bank Directors’ new task force studying mitigating bank directors’ personal liability. The task force will hold their first meeting today, February 2, 2021.
The task force will examine the extent to which fear of personal liability, exposure to reputational risk, and regulatory burdens makes top talent reluctant to serve on a bank’s board of directors. Additionally, the task force will evaluate to what extent reputational risk, personal liability risk, and regulatory burdens are greater for bank directors than directors of other corporate boards. The task force will advise the AABD on these issues, based on the task force’s findings.
Hoenig said, “I am pleased to be a part of this new task force. Over my career I have witnessed an increased reluctance among qualified individuals to serve as a bank director out of concern for the excessive liability that appears to come with this role. I look forward to contributing to the task force’s efforts to address this important issue.”
Hoenig joined the Mercatus Center in May of 2019 after serving as Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2012 until 2018. Previously, Hoenig was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Reserve System's Federal Open Market Committee from 1991 to 2011. Mr. Hoenig was with the Federal Reserve for 38 years, beginning as an economist and then as a senior officer in banking supervision.
The AABD was founded in 1989 to represent the information, education and advocacy needs of individual bank and savings institution directors.
For more information, or to schedule an interview with Thomas Hoenig, please contact Kate De Lanoy at [email protected].