Bank Regulator Offers Buyouts to Trim Senior-Management Ranks

(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is inviting about 1,200 older and long-serving employees to retire with voluntary buyouts so the agency can replace them with new hires better versed in modern data-management and computer skills.

The initiative announced in a Thursday statement is meant to reduce the FDIC's ranks of managers and senior supervisors, many of whom are already at or near retirement age, according to the agency. Nobody will be forced to leave, but those who choose to do so will have an opportunity to walk away with six months of pay, the agency said.

The buyout isn't intended to be a cost-saving move, but is instead aimed at heading off a potentially crippling surge of future retirements while building skills the FDIC is falling behind on, the agency said.

“This wave of potential retirements could deplete the FDIC's institutional experience and knowledge, especially during a crisis,” the agency's inspector general said in a recent warning. For instance, 76% of executives and managers in the agency's Division of Finance can retire in the next four years.

The current examinations and supervisory staff -- those who keep tabs on banks ongoing operations -- wouldn't be among the 20% of the workforce eligible for the buyouts. Some clerical and administrative employees will be extended buyout offers, and a small number would get as much as 12 months of pay. The FDIC will also close several field offices and consolidate others, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Hamilton in Washington at jhamilton33@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net, Gregory Mott

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