HUD Official to Head Bailout Agency’s Board

Peter H. Monroe, a Housing and Urban Development official and former Florida developer, was appointed president of the Resolution Trust Corp.’s Oversight Board, a key policy-making agency in the thrift cleanup effort, the agency said Monday.

Monroe, 46, whose appointment takes effect June 11, succeeds William Taylor, who has been acting head of the agency since February, when former Oversight Board President Daniel Kearney abruptly resigned in a dispute with Bush Administration officials.

Taylor, who will return to his job as the Federal Reserve Board’s top banking regulator, was recently mentioned by President Bush as a possible successor to L. William Seidman as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Monroe has been HUD’s general deputy assistant secretary and deputy commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration for the past year. Before joining HUD, he was president of Rutenberg Commercial Developers in Clearwater, Fla., where he has held various positions since 1978.

“Peter Monroe’s extensive experience in real estate and finance make him an excellent choice to assume this critical leadership role at the Oversight Board,” said Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, who chairs the Oversight Board.

The Oversight Board’s other four members include Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp.

Kemp said Monroe has had a key role in reforming HUD’s insured and assisted housing programs, which were plagued by influence-peddling and other scandals during the Reagan Administration. Monroe, a native of Grosse Pointe, Mich., is also a lawyer.

The Oversight Board acts as the voice of the Bush Administration in determining policy for the Resolution Trust Corp., the agency created last summer to dispose of hundreds of insolvent savings and loans.

The RTC is operating more than 300 other insolvent institutions and has liquidated, sold or transferred the federally insured deposits of 110 other dead thrifts.