OTS During and After Reich
Under Director Reich, the Office of Thrift Supervision saw the failure or near-failure of at least five major institutions - IndyMac Bank, AIG, Washington Mutual, Downey Financial and Countrywide Financial. These constituted some of the largest financial failures in modern history to that point. OTS later acknowledged that in the case of AIG it failed to take regulatory actions it should appropriately have taken as early as 2004. In the case of IndyMac, after Director Reich and OTS both denied responsibility for the failure, the Office of Inspector General of the United States Treasury found that OTS both inappropriately failed to act and inappropriately and knowingly allowed regulatory misconduct.
On June 17, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intention to disband the Office of Thrift Supervision as part of a program of regulatory reform, citing "loopholes that have allowed important institutions to cherry-pick among banking rules".
Read more about this topic: John M. Reich