Regulator Puts His Investments in Blind Trust : Ethics: The comptroller of the currency took the step after questions were raised about the propriety of his heavy trading in junk bonds.

U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Robert L. Clarke, who has come under scrutiny for actively trading securities while serving as a bank regulator, said Friday that he would place his personal investments in a blind trust.

“I am taking these actions today to lay to rest questions about my financial affairs so that I can devote my full attention to the difficult bank regulatory decisions that lie ahead,” he said.

The Treasury Department is conducting an ethics review of Clarke, which he requested after the Washington Post reported that he had traded large amounts of stocks and bonds while serving as the top supervisor of about 4,000 banks chartered by the federal government.

“Rather than permit questions about my financial affairs to continue until this review is complete,” Clarke said, “I have instructed my legal advisers to begin the process of establishing a qualified blind trust.”

The Washington Post reported that Clarke has bought and sold more than $1.7 million worth of high-risk junk bonds since he took office in 1985.

It said he continued to trade the bonds since 1989, when he served on the board of the Resolution Trust Corp., the thrift-cleanup agency that has taken over many junk bond holdings.

The Post, citing Clarke’s financial disclosure forms, also said he had borrowed extensively from state-chartered banks and once had a loan of more than $100,000 from a national bank regulated by his office.

Clarke, dubbed the “regulator from hell” because he was tough on banks for their real estate lending binge in the 1980s, has not been accused of anything illegal.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

But the Post story raised questions about whether an official involved in government decisions on bank oversight and junk bond sales should be actively trading securities.