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ICBC,
the country's biggest commercial bank, announced Bair's
appointment in a stock exchange notice on Monday, stating that
her election was approved by China's banking regulator.
Bair, who was nominated last year, becomes the most high-profile
former regulator to join the lender's board of directors. Other
ICBC independent directors include Anthony Neoh, a former
chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
Bair, chairwoman of the FDIC between 2006 and 2011, could help
ICBC bolster its internal oversight as the bank seeks to expand
its operations overseas.
Chinese state-owned lenders have faced sanctions and prosecution
in the U.S. and Europe for a series of compliance failures. Last
year, six ICBC bankers were arrested in Spain on suspicion of
facilitating money laundering and fraud.
In November, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd agreed to pay a $215
million fine as part of a consent order published by New York's
Department of Financial Services for violating
anti-money-laundering (AML) laws by deliberately obscuring
potentially suspicious transactions and silencing its compliance
officer.
Bair, who is president of Washington College, also serves as an
independent director on the boards of Host Hotels & Resort Inc.
<HST.N> and Thomson Reuters Corp <TRI.TO>, the parent of Reuters
News.
(Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Keith Weir)
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