Trump team reportedly eyeing Kansas City’s Tom Hoenig for banking post

Kansas Citian Tom Hoenig is being considered for a Trump administration post overseeing bank regulation, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal listed Hoenig among three top contenders for Federal Reserve vice chairman in charge of bank oversight. It said the post was created in 2010 but never officially filled, with its duties being picked up by a current governor of the Fed.

Hoenig served for 20 years as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and was named vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2012.

In his Kansas City Fed post, Hoenig served on the Fed’s interest rate policy committee and gained national attention in 2010 for voting against then low interest rates at each Fed policy session in Washington throughout the year.

The Journal called Hoenig politically independent, though he called himself a populist ahead of the Fed’s first policy session in 2010.

“I couldn’t be more proud of being called a populist. I’m not afraid of that name because that’s the common sense,” Hoenig told The Star several years ago.

Hoenig also has railed against the growth of the nation’s largest banks, noting that the biggest emerged from the financial crisis even larger than before and controlling a larger share of the nation’s banking industry.

Others the Journal mentioned were former banker John Allison, who built BB&T Corp. into a large national operation, and Paul Atkins, an industry consultant who previously served as a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This story was originally published December 5, 2016 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Trump team reportedly eyeing Kansas City’s Tom Hoenig for banking post."