The nation’s largest banking firm, JPMorgan Chase and Co., has named Tim Ryan as its Global Head of Regulatory Strategy and Policy.
Ryan will leave his post as chief executive of the securities industry’s primary policy organization, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), on February 23.
SIFMA named Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., currently its executive vice president, public policy and advocacy, to act as president and chief executive starting on that date. The lobbying group said it will search for a permanent replacement.
For Ryan, the change represents a return to his prior home in the private sector. Before joining SIFMA in April 2008, Ryan was the vice chairman of investment banking for financial institutions and governments at JPMorgan.
This time around, he will report to Matt Zames, co-Chief Operating Officer for JPMorgan Chase.
“More than at any time in our history, regulatory strategy and policies around the world are affecting our business and how we serve clients,’’ said Zames, in a statement. ‘Tim has both a deep knowledge of these policies and the government representatives formulating them, and also knows our businesses and executives extremely well from his 16 years at the firm.’’
“As Dodd Frank, Basel, EU, FSB and housing policies continue to evolve, I believe my experience can help the businesses across JPMorgan Chase continue to adapt and thrive,” Ryan said. Those are references to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act in the United States, the Basel accords requiring higher capital reserves at banks, European Union financial industry reforms as well as responses to the credit crisis caused by the implosion of the subprime mortgage lending market.
Ryan has extensive experience in regulation of the housing, banking and securities markets. Prior to joining JPMorgan in 1993, Ryan was director of the Office of Thrift Supervision in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As OTS director, he was the banking and securities regulator for the nation’s approximately 2,000 thrifts. He was also a principal manager of the savings and loan cleanup, which involved closing approximately 700 insolvent institutions, improving capital bases and selling over $300 billion of assets.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. oversees assets of $2.3 trillion and operations in more than 60 countries.
Bentsen is a former president of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, a 700-member financial services trade association representing commercial and investment banks, financial services companies and manufacturers in the commercial finance sector.
From 2003 to 2006, Bentsen was managing director of Public Strategies, advising financial services clients.
From 1995 to 2003, Bentsen was a Texas congressman, sitting on the House Financial Services Committee and on the House Budget Committee. Bentsen also was an active participant in the drafting and enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act and the Commodities Futures Modernization Act.
