Quarles named as US banking regulator

US President Donald Trump intends to nominate Randal Quarles, a former Treasury Department official, to a role as the country’s top banks regulator, the White House said on Monday.

Quarles, who is founder and managing director of The Cynosure Group, a private investment firm in Salt Lake City, would be the latest financier to join the Trump administration.

If he is confirmed by the Republican-majority Senate, Quarles would join top officials sympathetic to big finance including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, both of whom once worked at Goldman Sachs.

Deregulation gaining

Quarles’ nomination to a four-year term as vicechairman for supervision of the Federal Reserve system suggests that the deregulation of the banking system, as promised by Trump, is gaining momentum.

The president also nominated Quarles to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors for a term expiring on January 31, 2018, and for an additional term expiring January 31, 2032.

Quarles served as undersecretary for domestic finance in the Republican administration of George W Bush. Before that, he was assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs and US executive director of the IMF.