Washington
banking on
Hawaii woman
Donna Tanoue has been
By Pete Pichaske
head of the FDIC for only
four months, but D.C.
is already taking notice
Star-BulletinWASHINGTON -- On one side of Donna Tanoue's plush, sixth-floor corner office, with its postcard view of the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial, is a framed picture of President Roosevelt signing the law that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the federal agency Tanoue heads.
On the other side is a statue of a kneeling Thai monk.
Together, they seem to neatly sum up the 44-year-old Tanoue, a businesslike, even-keeled woman who has risen to prominence in the world of banking.
As chairman of the FDIC, Tanoue, a product of Kalani High School and the University of Hawaii, not only oversees the 7,300-employee agency that insures deposits and regulates safe banking practices at financial institutions across the nation.
She also is the highest-ranking Hawaii resident in the Clinton administration.
It is not a job she yearned for, but it's one that fits her well.
"She's going to be a real credit to the FDIC," said James McLaughlin, director of regulatory and trust affairs for the American Bankers Association. "She's very deliberate and thoughtful, and when she spoke at our convention (this week), you could see that after a few months, she's feeling very comfortable in the job."
"She's a pro. She's a very quick learner," said First Hawaiian Bank President Walter Dods, who first worked with Tanoue 15 years ago in the midst of Hawaii's savings and loan crisis. "It's quite a leap, but she's very capable and I know she can handle it."
"Hawaii is home, and my family and I intend to go back," said Tanoue, who moved here with her husband, attorney Kirk W. Caldwell, and their 4-year-old daughter after her appointment four months ago. "But I love Washington."
Tanoue seems to have the right mix of banking experience, public service and political savvy for such a high-level Washington appointment.
After UH, she graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, then took a job as deputy attorney general in Hawaii's Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
In 1983, just as the savings and loan crisis was beginning, Tanoue was named Hawaii's banking commissioner. She was still in her 20s. During her 4-year tenure, she was credited with rescuing two failing financial companies and making sure thousands of worried depositors held on to their savings.
Tanoue went into private law practice in 1987, specializing in banking and finance law.
At the same time, she earned her political stripes by serving as campaign manager for Sen. Daniel Inouye.
Inouye, in turn, used his clout to help shepherd her nomination through the Senate this year, touting her as "a fresh face with unquestionable integrity" who "will skillfully lead the FDIC into the 20th century."
Her nomination was approved unanimously by the Senate four months ago. Her appointment will run until October 2000.
"I'm still amazed," said Tanoue, who laughed when she first heard about the job opening from a friend in Washington and decided almost on a whim to fax her resume to the White House. "It wasn't a calculated process where I said, 'I want to grow up to be the FDIC chair.' "
Tanoue's days now are a whirlwind -- some might say nightmare -- of activity.
This week, for example, she spoke in Orlando at the American Bankers Association annual convention and in Washington at the monthly meeting of Women in Housing and Finance, oversaw an FDIC board meeting, and testified before the House Banking and Financial Services Committee on global economic risks.
She ran down a lengthy list of issues facing her agency, from bank mega-mergers and faltering Asian economies to more arcane matters such as derivatives and risk-based premium systems.
"There is a great deal of work to be done here," she said.
Tanoue's willingness to tackle that work has not gone unnoticed.
"She has hit the ground running in Washington," said Kenneth Guenther, executive vice president of the Independent Bankers Association of America.
"She is beginning to make her mark on 'Y2K' problems and other supervisory and regulatory problems."
That "Y2K" problem -- making sure the nation's banks can handle the computer glitches expected when the year 2000 arrives -- is Tanoue's top priority.
At this week's speech to women in finance, she detailed the results of an FDIC survey that found 94 percent of the nation's banks are making satisfactory progress toward avoiding a problem.
"People can take confidence that if their money is in an insured bank or thrift, it will be safe," she said.
The "sheer breadth" of the issues she must tackle in her new job and the "rapidity with which they come up" have been jarring, said Tanoue. But that shock has been countered by a more pleasant surprise.
"Before I came to Washington, a lot of people warned me about this city," she said. "They said, 'Don't trust anyone. Don't trust the media. Be very careful.' "
Instead, she said, "one of the nicest things (about the job) has been the people here."
Her long work weeks are broken up by outings with her husband and daughter: picnics, canoe rides on the Potomac River, a trip to Monticello, Va. And on long days, she looks to her 17th-century Thai monk, imported from her Honolulu law office, for solace.
"On those hectic days you look out and see the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. I look at my monk and he's always calm," she said. "Always calm."
