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The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) today announced the appointment of Edward “Joe” Face to the Council’s State Liaison Committee. Face’s SLC nomination was confirmed by the Council for a two-year term starting May 1, 2016, and continuing through April 30, 2018.

Face has been the Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Financial Institutions since 1997. The Bureau of Financial Institutions regulates and supervises about 1,700 state-chartered financial institutions holding nearly $75 billion in assets. These institutions include banks, bank holding companies, independent trust companies, savings institutions, credit unions, small loan and consumer finance companies, mortgage lenders and brokers, industrial loan associations, money order sellers and transmitters, debt-counseling agencies, check cashers, motor vehicle title lenders, and payday lenders.

Face has been with the Bureau since 1979 when he began work as an examiner. During his career, he has worked in each of the Bureau’s regulatory sections and has participated in on-site examinations and investigations involving both depository and non-depository financial institutions. In addition, he has prepared investigation reports on various licensing applications, from new bank applications to merger-and-acquisition applications and branch applications.

In 1988, Face helped start the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, the national association of state mortgage regulators. He served as the group’s first two-term president. He has also served as president of the National Association of Consumer Credit Administrators and the National Association of State Consumer Finance Regulators. Face is also a past chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) (2006-2007), the nationwide organization of banking regulators from all 50 states and U.S. territories.

Face joins the current four members of the SLC:

• SLC Chairman Karen Lawson, Director, Office of Banking within the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, confirmed by the Council;
• Greg Gonzales, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, appointed by the CSBS;
• Mary Hughes, Financial Institutions Bureau Chief of the Idaho Department of Finance, appointed by the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors (NASCUS); and
• Caroline Jones, Commissioner of the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending, appointed by the American Council of State Savings Supervisors (ACSSS).

The FFIEC was created by the Federal Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 to prescribe uniform principles, standards and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions, and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. It also conducts schools for examiners employed by the five federal member agencies represented on the FFIEC and makes those schools available to employees of state agencies that supervise financial institutions.

The FFIEC currently consists of the following six voting members: the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Comptroller of the Currency; a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), appointed by the Chairman of the Board; Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration; and the Chairman of the SLC.

The SLC consists of five representatives of state banking agencies that supervise financial institutions and members are designated from the CSBS, ACSSS, NASCUS and the Council.