(Yahoo!Finance) - Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Martin Gruenberg said Tuesday that the FDIC is conducting a third-party review of a report in the Wall Street Journal detailing how sexual harassment and a toxic work environment forced women to leave the regulatory agency.
"I'm personally disturbed and deeply troubled by this report," Gruenberg said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
Senators on that committee grilled Gruenberg several times Tuesday about the allegations surfaced by the Journal, questioning why more was not done following a 2020 report from the FDIC's inspector general that listed a series of sexual harassment complaints and recommended 15 changes to the FDIC's polices.
Gruenberg was on the board of the FDIC in 2020 but was not yet chairman.
"What the hell is going on at the FDIC?" asked Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said: "The culture is skanky at the FDIC. It’s disgusting. What are you going to do about this?"
When asked whether that 2020 inspector general report had changed the agency's culture, Gruenberg said he didn't think so.
"No, I think it probably didn't," he said. "Candidly, that's the underlying issue here."
Gruenberg said he hopes the third-party review will be done in 90 days or less.
"Let me underscore I have no higher priority to ensure that all FDIC employees work in a safe environment where they feel valued and respected," he said. "It's quite clear that we've had employees at the FDIC subjected to horrendous experiences that simply are unacceptable and can't be tolerated and it's really gonna be incumbent on the agency to take all actions necessary to come to grips with this and to address it effectively."
Gruenberg acknowledged that it is not enough to just put new polices in place, which the FDIC did following the 2020 report from the inspector general.
It is up to management, he added, to instill confidence in employees that they can use procedures and policies to protect themselves if they are treated improperly and to hold harassers accountable.
"That's the core challenge that we are going to work on," he said.
His answers didn't satisfy some senators. "You and your colleagues ought to hide your head in a bag," Kennedy said. "This is no country for creepy old men and they got no place at the FDIC and this wasn't a news flash for you. You had a 2020 report and you sat on the board and you didn't do anything."
Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said, "We expect you to create a safe and welcoming workplace for all the employees, examiners, and others."
Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) asked Gruenberg if he knew about the allegations surfaced by the Journal before the article published Monday.
"As a general matter, no, Senator," Gruenberg replied.
Rounds also asked Gruenberg if he was going to be a focus of any other press reports.
"I can’t speak to that," Gruenberg said. "You have to speak to the news organizations."
By Jennifer Schonberger · Senior Reporter
