Former Comptroller of the Currency, John Dugan, will be rejoining the law firm of Covington & Burling as a partner in the firm's Washington office beginning in early January. He also will chair the firm's financial institutions group.

As Comptroller, Dugan headed the agency that supervises over 1,500 national banks and federal branches of foreign banks, which together hold nearly two-thirds of the assets of the U.S. commercial banking system.  He also served on the board of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. During his five-year term, he led the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) through the financial crisis and ensuing recession that resulted in extraordinary regulatory and supervisory actions for national banks of all sizes, including government assistance provided under the Troubled Asset Relief Program; resolutions of large, mid-size, and community banks; and the successful implementation of regulatory “stress tests.”

Dugan also was deeply involved in numerous supervisory and regulatory initiatives, such as capital standards issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, on which he served; policy and regulatory recommendations of the Financial Stability Board, where he participated because of his chairmanship of the Joint Forum (an international committee of banking, securities, and insurance regulators); guidance and supervisory action on a range of residential mortgage and credit card issues; and successful litigation efforts to preserve key federal preemption attributes of the national bank charter.

Most recently, Dugan directed the OCC's efforts to help shape critical parts of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, including its provisions on systemic risk regulation and the Financial Stability Oversight Council; federal preemption; new capital regulation; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; revamped derivatives regulation; and the so-called “Volcker Rule” limitations on banks' trading and investment activities.

Before first coming to Covington in 1993, Dugan served as assistant secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of Treasury, and as Counsel and Minority General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.