Comptroller to Add 300 Bank Examiners : Banking: The announcement comes three days before the start of hearings on whether to let embattled Robert L. Clarke have a second term.

Comptroller of the Currency Robert L. Clarke, battling to keep his job amid charges that his lax leadership contributed to the wave of bank failures, said Monday that he will hire 300 more bank examiners.

Clarke said the 15% increase in examiners over two years would allow his office to scrutinize the books of even the smallest banks more frequently, marking a shift from the agency’s recent policy.

Clarke announced his hiring plans in a speech at the Consumer Bankers Assn. conference in Hot Springs, Va., three days before he faces tough confirmation hearings before the Senate Banking Committee.

President Bush nominated Clarke for reappointment to his position as regulator of nationally chartered banks, which control about two-thirds of commercial bank assets.

But Committee Chairman Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) has asked the Administration to withdraw Clarke’s name because of what they consider Clarke’s mediocre performance and because of the high rate of bank failures.

In contrast, William Taylor, the president’s choice to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which oversees state-chartered banks, is expected to win easy confirmation. A hearing on Taylor’s nomination is set for today.

Democratic senators and one Republican, Alfonse D’Amato of New York, have joined in stiff criticism of Clarke.

They noted that the nation has suffered the highest rate of bank failures since the Great Depression during Clarke’s five-year tenure and warned that Clarke’s job is in jeopardy unless he puts up a solid defense at the hearing Thursday.

Moving to squelch the outcry, Clarke over the weekend released a report rebuffing a House panel’s findings that banks regulated by his office have the worst failure rates and account for 73% of costs to the deposit insurance fund between 1986 and June, 1991.

The committee’s data are skewed by the disproportionate number of banks in Texas holding national charters, Clarke said in a letter to House Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat.

The real estate market collapse in Texas in 1987 destroyed hundreds of banks and thrifts. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the nation’s oldest bank regulator, oversees about 4,000 of the nation’s 12,000 banks. The FDIC is responsible for about 7,000 banks, and the Federal Reserve Board inspects bank holding companies.

“Outside Texas and the rest of the OCC’s Southwestern district, the failure rate of national banks was slightly lower than the failure rate of banks that the FDIC and Federal Reserve supervise,” Clarke wrote.

This shows that any link between the rate of bank failures and OCC supervision is scant, Clarke said in the letter.

In his speech in Hot Springs, Clarke said his office will conduct examinations every 18 months on highly capitalized small banks. This is in line with bank reform legislation now before Congress.