Brody to Resign as Export-Import Bank Chief

Kenneth D. Brody, the one-time Wall Street financial wizard who helped spearhead the Clinton Administration’s campaign to boost U.S. business abroad, is resigning as head of the government’s export financing agency.

As chairman and chief executive of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Brody, 52, undertook a top-to-bottom restructuring of the bank’s operations during the past three years, reducing the time and cost needed to evaluate loan applications, reaching out to small business exporters and redirecting its lending activities to developing markets in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

“This is perhaps the most changed agency in the federal government,” Brody said Thursday. “We set out with a set of very clear, difficult objectives and we have met and exceeded every one of them. Now it is time to move on.”

Brody may go down as the Export-Import Bank’s last independent chairman. Congress is now considering whether to merge the bank with other related agencies, including the trade development arm of the Commerce Department, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office and the Overseas Private Investment Corp.

Brody said his decision is unrelated to the organizational review and said the bank enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress.