Ruth Porat is staying put.
Morgan Stanley‘s chief financial officer  informed the White House on Wednesday that she wanted her name withdrawn as a candidate for deputy Treasury secretary, according to people familiar with her plans but not authorized to speak on the record.
Ms. Porat, a long-time Morgan Stanley banker who in early 2010 was named the bank’s chief financial officer, decided to take her name out of the running in part because she did not want to face questions about her finances and was worried about a highly charged environment in Washington against Wall Street bankers, according to these people.
Ms. Porat’s exact net worth is not known, but she made more than $10 million in 2011 alone, the most recent year for which her compensation is available. Jack Lew, the man who would have been her boss had she been confirmed as Treasury Secretary, faced pointed questions during his confirmation about the compensation he received while working on Wall Street.
Mr. Lew worked at Citigroup from 2006 to 2008. Under the terms of his contract with Citi, compensation worth as much as $500,000 that had been previously granted to him but had not yet vested was awarded to him because he left the firm for a senior government position.
Ms. Porat withdrew her name early in the process; she hadn’t gone as far as to submit her tax returns to the White House, according to these people.
There are now no clear front-runners for the job of deputy Treasury Secretary and the White House is potentially months away from naming a candidate. One Washington insider suggested the White House may select a candidate already in the administration. This will allow them to sidestep, at least temporarily, a confirmation hearing.
Possible candidates already in the administration include Mary Miller, currently a top treasury official, and Lael Brainard, the under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.
At Morgan Stanley, the news that Ms. Porat is staying will end months of speculation there about who was going to succeed her.
Bloomberg News reported earlier that Ms. Porat was no longer in the running for the Treasury job.
