As the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Joseph A. Smith, Jr. will be tasked by President Barack Obama with overseeing the regulation of troubled housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were taken over by the government in 2008. The FHFA also regulates 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Smith is considered an advocate for increased government protection of mortgage borrowers, and has been a vocal critic of federal regulators for not policing abuses by national banks. Obama announced the appointment on November 12, 2010.

 

Smith was born November 9, 1949, and grew up in Dunbar, West Virginia, with his mother, Helen Fisher Smith, who still lives in Dunbar, and his father, the late Joseph A. Smith, who was one of the town’s two doctors. Smith attended Davidson College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1971. He graduated from the University of Virginia law school in 1974.

 

He spent the next 15 years practicing law for several corporations in the greater New York area. He began as an associate attorney specializing in public finance at Brown, Wood, Ivey, Mitchell & Petty (1975-1979), before moving on work as a corporate counsel for PepsiCo (1979-1984). He followed this with a stint as an assistant general counsel for Emery Air Freight Corp. (1984-1988).

 

In 1988, Smith moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to work for the law firm of Poyner and Spruill, where he practiced corporate, securities and banking law. He then spent 1991-2000 as general counsel at Centura Bank in Rocky Mount, serving as lead attorney in 15 acquisitions.

 

After a stop at Thacher Proffitt & Wood in Washington, D.C. (2000-2002), in June 2002 Smith became North Carolina Commissioner of Banks. In this role, he headed an agency charged with the supervision of banks and thrift institutions; the licensing and regulation of firms and individuals engaged in mortgage banking and brokerage; and the regulation of a variety of consumer finance enterprises.

 

Smith has served as chair of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and is a founding member of the Board of Managers of State Regulatory Registry LLC, a limited liability company established to implement a nationwide mortgage licensing system.

 

Smith and his wife, Elizabeth, have two sons, Joseph and Matthew.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Dunbar Man Nominated to Head Federal Agency (by George Hohmann, Charleston Daily Mail)

Nominee to Oversee Fannie and Freddie Is Named (by Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times)

Joseph A. Smith Jr. Picked to Head Fannie, Freddie (by Lorraine Woellert, Bloomberg News)

The Nerve to Say No (by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times)

Testimony on “Examining the State of the Banking Industry” (pdf)

Testimony on “Regulator Perspectives on Financial Regulatory Reform Proposals” (pdf)

Testimony on “Modernizing Bank Supervision and Regulation” (pdf)

Testimony on “Mortgage Market Turmoil: Causes and Consequences” (pdf)

Testimony before House Select Committee on Home Foreclosures (pdf)