A senior Wall Street regulator will step down next month as her agency undergoes a makeover, ending a nearly two-decade career as one of the banking industry's most powerful and yet polarizing watchdogs.
Julie Williams, the chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, announced on Monday that she would leave the agency on Sept. 30. Ms. Williams, who also twice served as acting comptroller, said she would officially retire at the end of the year.
Working behind the scenes in Washington, Ms. Williams was intrinsically linked to the agency. A skilled lawyer with a mastery of esoteric financial minutiae, Ms. Williams positioned herself as the go-to adviser. In recent months, she has led the agency's effort to write new rules for Wall Street and played a role in dissecting the multibillion-dollar trading loss at JPMorgan Chase.
“In her 19 years at the O.C.C., her contributions to the agency and her role in the world of financial services regulation have been extraordinary,†Thomas J. Curry, the comptroller of the currency, said in a statement.
Her policies, however, drew the ire of some Congressional Democrats, who depicted Ms. Williams as a sympathetic regulator with a light touch. She fought to temper crucial aspects of the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul law, according to people briefed on the matter, and beat back efforts to afford state regulators greater authority over banks.
In recent years, some lawmakers sought to curb the significant power she wielded over the state of financial regulation. In an early version of the Dodd-Frank law, passed in response to the 2008 credit crisis, lawmakers stripped her O.C.C. position of its civil service status, which protects government employees from being fired. The wording was removed from the final version of the law.
On Monday, Representative Barney Frank, the co-author of the law that bears his name, cheered her departure. “It's the best news financial reform has had in a while,†said Mr. Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, while praising Ms. Williams as a “woman of integrity and ability.â€
Through a spokesman, Ms. Williams declined to comment.
Her departure coincides with a recent overhaul of the agency, the national banking regulator long criticized as too cozy with the industry it oversees. Mr. Curry, a former director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who is known for taking a critical eye to Wall Street, took over in April. He then hired Paul Nash, a senior F.D.I.C. official, as his chief of staff.
Some had expected Ms. Williams to depart soon after Mr. Curry's arrival, viewing her as incompatible with his more aggressive approach to policing the banks. But at recent Congressional hearings, Ms. Williams remained his right-hand woman, seated directly behind Mr. Curry.
In July, Mr. Curry convened a gathering of his top deputies, including Ms. Williams, to chart the a gency's future course, a person briefed on the matter said. In the weeks that followed, Ms. Williams and Mr. Curry mutually agreed to part ways, the person said.
Some people at the agency expect her to land a job in the financial industry, though Ms. Williams has yet to publicly identify her next step. A move to the private sector would end nearly 30 years of regulatory work. Before joining the O.C.C. in 1993, she worked at two now-extinct financial regulators: the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Office of Thrift Supervision.
People close to the O.C.C. note that, despite her status as a lighting rod, Ms. Williams commanded respect from the banking industry's supporters and foes alike. “She's a brilliant lawyer and a legend at the agency,†said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In an internal e-mail on Monday provided to The New York Times, Mr. Curry hailed her long regulatory career.
“Julie has been a vigorous enforcer and defender of the laws the OCC is charged with administering,†he wrote. “It's always hard to see a member of the O.C.C. family leave, and doubly so when it's someone who has contributed as much to the O.C.C. as Julie Williams.â€
