By Jessica Holzer Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Treasury Department's inspector general has begun a formal probe of the Office of Thrift Supervision in connection with a back-dated capital infusion into IndyMac Bancorp weeks before its collapse in July.
A top OTS official, West Region Director Darrel Dochow, has been removed from his duties in connection with the inquiry, according to letters released by the office of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, on Monday.
In a letter to Grassley, Treasury Inspector General Eric M. Thorson said the probe would examine why Dochow allowed IndyMac to record $18 million in capital as being received by the thrift from its holding company before March 31, 2008, even though the injection occurred after that date.
Without the back-dated capital contribution, IndyMac's risk-based capital ratio would have fallen below the 10% threshold for "well capitalized" banks to 9.98% as of March 31, partly due to changes proposed by its auditor, Ernst & Young.
A change in designation from well capitalized to "adequately capitalized" would have required IndyMac to get special permission from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to offer brokered deposits. Such deposits offer higher yields to consumers but pose a greater risk to the FDIC's deposit insurance fund.
The FDIC has estimated IndyMac's failure will costs its deposit insurance fund $8.9 billion.
In his letter, Thorsen said OTS has allowed other thrifts to record capital infusions in fiscal quarters different from those in which they were actually received.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson requested the inquiry after the back-dated capital infusion came to light during a standard review of IndyMac and the causes of its failure by the inspector general.
In a statement, Grassley criticized the OTS and raised questions about the implication for the financial condition of other thrifts that the agency may have also permitted to back-date capital infusions.
"The role of the Office of Thrift Supervision, as the name says, is to supervise these banks, not conspire with them," he said.
-By Jessica Holzer, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9228; jessica.holzer@dowjones.com
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Publié le 22 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones