FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sean Coffey
California Reinvestment Coalition Releases New Fact Sheets on Joseph Otting,
Urges Close Review by Senate Banking Committee
OTTING’S TENURE RESULTED IN WHISTLEBLOWER SETTLEMENT, REDLINING COMPLAINT, ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS
Washington, DC, July 26, 2017—Today, the California Reinvestment Coalition released two fact sheets focused on Joseph Otting’s record at OneWest Bank and its subsidiary Financial Freedom, and on complaints made to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about the bank. CRC is calling on members of the US Senate Banking Committee to probe further into Joseph Otting’s record at OneWest Bank during his confirmation hearing tomorrow.
“When Mr. Otting was fired in 2015, he walked away with a $12 million severance package. But since then, more problems from his time as CEO of OneWest Bank have emerged,” explains Paulina Gonzalez, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. “In May, his former company agreed to an $89 million whistleblower fraud settlement with the US Department of Justice and Mr. Otting was CEO for the majority of the time when this alleged fraud occurred. If Mr. Otting wasn’t willing to follow the rules when he was a bank CEO, why should senators have any confidence that he would be willing to enforce those same rules as Comptroller of the Currency?”
“Senior homeowners and their families across the country lost their homes needlessly because of Financial Freedom’s heavy handed foreclosure tactics,” explains Kevin Stein, deputy director at the California Reinvestment Coalition. “Senators and their constituents deserve an explanation as to how his track record qualifies him to oversee the largest banks in our country.”
Additional Background
1) New Fact Sheet on problems at OneWest Bank while Joseph Otting was CEO.
2) New Fact Sheet on CFPB complaints made against OneWest Bank during Otting’s tenure.
Joseph Otting is one of three OneWest Bank alumni who have been nominated or confirmed to work in this administration, including Steve Mnuchin, the former chair of OneWest, and Brian Brooks, the former general counsel, who has been nominated for deputy treasury secretary.