Exclusive-US Fed to tap former Wall Street lawyer Guynn for top bank oversight role, say sources

By Pete Schroeder and Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to name Randall Guynn as its new director of supervision and regulation, said two people familiar with the matter, putting a Wall Street veteran with deep banking ties in a powerful position policing the industry.

Guynn, a former partner at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP who has represented the largest U.S. lenders, would replace Michael Gibson, who announced his retirement in July after more than three decades at the central bank. 

Guynn since May 2025 has been serving as an advisor to Fed Governor and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Republican President Donald Trump’s pick to lead regulation at the central bank. 

Guynn’s planned appointment, which Reuters is the first to report, is still subject to a vote by the Fed’s board of seven governors, according to the sources. Reuters could not ascertain the timing of the vote, which is conducted in private. Guynn will continue to report to Bowman in the new role.

The choice of Guynn for supervision and regulation director would mark a departure for the central bank, which since at least 1977 has filled the job with long-serving Fed career staff, according to a Reuters review of Fed press releases.

Other Wall Street attorneys who have gone into government regulatory roles have recused themselves from dealing with firms they recently represented. Bowman’s Republican predecessor Randal Quarles, meanwhile, recused himself from matters relating to Wells Fargo due to previous financial interests he and his family had held in the bank. 

A Fed spokesperson said that since joining the Fed last May, Guynn has recused himself from any matters involving specific firms for which he did legal work in the last year.

The spokesperson declined to comment further.

SWEEPING RULES AND SUPERVISION OVERHAUL

The supervision and regulation division is responsible for the Fed’s broad oversight of the banking sector, which includes setting rules for and examining the nation’s largest, most complex financial institutions.

Bowman brought in Guynn to help execute her sweeping effort to overhaul banking rules and supervision practices introduced following the 2008 financial crisis. She has argued that those rules, as well as supervision, have grown too onerous and are stifling economic growth, but has also said that her goal is to sharpen industry oversight rather than limit it.

Bowman has announced plans to restructure the division of supervision and regulation, including by reducing its headcount roughly 30% to around 350 people – mostly via natural attrition, retirements and voluntary redundancies. Gibson took a voluntary buyout.

Guynn previously led the Financial Institutions Group at Davis Polk, which he joined in 1986, and is widely recognized as an expert on banking regulation. He has represented a raft of banks and other financial institutions, including the nation’s eight largest lenders and multiple industry trade groups, including counseling them on regulatory proposals, according to his Davis Polk biography.

During the 2008 financial crisis, he advised the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on its bailout of American International Group and helped Freddie Mac navigate its government conservatorship. 

He also helped guide big banks on a $30 billion rescue liquidity injection for First Republic Bank during the 2023 banking turmoil, and advised JPMorgan when it acquired First Republic following its collapse weeks later. 

In 2024 congressional testimony, Guynn criticized efforts by the Fed to raise bank capital requirements, arguing it had failed to provide sufficient data to support its case.

While he said banks should be subject to strong capital requirements, such prudential standards should be tailored according to institutions’ size and riskiness, he argued. 

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder and Chris Prentice; Editing by Michelle Price and Andrea Ricci)