July 03, 2003|By William Patalon III | William Patalon III,SUN STAFF
A Baltimore man who is a longtime veteran of the financial services industry has been appointed as the state's next commissioner of financial regulation, replacing the soon-to-retire Mary Louise Preis.
The new commissioner, Charles W. Turnbaugh, 58, is a first vice president and counsel with MBNA America NA.
"He has senior-level experience and knowledge of the [financial services] industry, its operations and the operation of financial institutions, as well as a strong working knowledge of the policy issues facing financial institutions," said James D. Fielder Jr., secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, the agency within which the commissioner of financial regulation works.
As commissioner, Turnbaugh will supervise the state's financial services industry, watching over its operation and working to maintain its soundness. Among other things, the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation supervises the operation of banks, credit unions, consumer-loan firms, mortgage companies and even collection agencies. The office licenses and audits the growing number of state-chartered financial institutions.
Turnbaugh, who could not be reached yesterday, joins the state oversight office at a challenging point. Despite the growing demands on the office, the depressed economy has made it difficult to get the funding needed to fill all its open positions, including critically needed bank examiners. The office has about a dozen open positions, including some for bank examiners.
Just last year, when state-chartered Allfirst Financial Inc. uncovered a currency-trading scheme that resulted in losses of more than $691.2 million, experts said Maryland's financial regulatory agency was understaffed and unprepared to deal with a problem of that scope and sophistication.
Preis and others had warned five years earlier that Maryland's budgetary constraints were keeping the office from hiring enough examiners, or even paying enough to retain its most senior and experienced staffers.
Legislation that would allow the Office of Financial Regulation to directly benefit from the charter and supervisory fees collected from state-chartered institutions has yet to pass, and it will now be Turnbaugh's job to shepherd it through, Fielder said. If that succeeds, "it should really help state oversight," Fielder said.
Turnbaugh has served, among other positions, as director of government affairs for retail banking at Citibank, vice president and general counsel for Citibank in Maryland, and as a senior vice president and general counsel at Loyola Federal Savings Bank, the state said.
He has a bachelor of arts degree from Western Maryland College and a law degree from the University of Maryland.
Preis, 61, was named commissioner of financial regulation in November 1998 by then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening, just weeks after she lost a race for Harford County's District 34 state Senate seat by 142 votes.
Her last day in office is Aug. 1, and she will be retiring from state service.
Fielder credited Preis with improving the quality and professionalism of the Office of Financial Regulation. Preis fought to improve funding and also upgraded the office's technology.
And while she may be retiring from state service, Preis said, she will be looking for another post, most likely within a private sector financial services firm - though she did not rule out anything.
