Senate Panel OKs FDIC Nominee : * Banking: William Taylor’s nomination as head of the regulatory agency now goes to the full Senate.

The Senate Banking Committee on Friday unanimously approved William Taylor, a tough-minded veteran regulator, as the new chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The committee voted 21-0 for Taylor, 52, who now is director of banking supervision at the Federal Reserve Board.

The appointment by President Bush, which must be confirmed by the full Senate, places Taylor on the front line of the nation’s banking crisis.

With his forthright style and 26 years of experience as a bank regulator, he is expected to win easy confirmation when the Senate votes next week.

Taylor would replace the popular, blunt-spoken L. William Seidman, who retired Wednesday.

With the industry in the midst of its darkest days since the Great Depression, Taylor faces a daunting task as leader of the bank regulatory agency.

The FDIC forecasts 160 to 180 bank failures this year and up to 220 next year. Since 1985, more than 1,000 banks have failed, the highest rate since the 1930s bank runs.

The failures--caused by the real estate bust, an era of lax bank regulation and intense competition from mutual funds and unregulated finance companies--have bled dry the insurance fund used to pay off depositors at failed banks.

One of Taylor’s first tasks will be persuading Congress to lend the Bank Insurance Fund $70 billion until the industry can rebuild it.

Seidman has warned that $70 billion may be insufficient if the economy remains in a slump.

The threat of an even more costly rescue of banks has sent shock waves through Congress after the multibillion-dollar thrift bailout.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) said he wants the FDIC to consider raising the premium that banks pay into the fund as one way to restore the health of the bank fund quickly.

Taylor has taken no position on higher premiums, though many bankers are resigned to a rate of 30 cents per $100 in deposits, up from 23 cents now.

Taylor comes to the FDIC well prepared.

While at the Fed, which regulates the parent companies of banks, he has participated in handling most of the nation’s biggest banking crises in recent years--Continental Illinois in Chicago, First RepublicBank in Texas and Bank of New England in Boston.

The FDIC is responsible for regulating the 7,307 state-chartered banks that are federally insured.

He would also have responsibility for the savings and loan cleanup agency, the Resolution Trust Corp.

Legislation now in Congress would strip that job from the FDIC’s jurisdiction, however.