WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced today that Larry L. Hattix, currently Assistant Deputy Comptroller for the Cincinnati/Columbus Field Office, has been named the agency's Ombudsman. He will succeed Samuel P. Golden, who will retire in March.

"The Ombudsman's office performs two critical functions: it provides national banks with a fair and effective process for appealing examiner decisions, and it assists national bank customers who have questions or complaints," said Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan. "Larry has extensive experience examining banks for both safety and soundness and consumer compliance, and that's an ideal mix for his new role as Ombudsman."

With respect to the appellate process, the Office of the Ombudsman has exceptionally broad authority to resolve disputes. With respect to customers of national banks, the office oversees the OCC's Customer Assistance Group, which fields questions and complaints. More than 70,000 national bank customers contact the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency annually, resulting in almost 30,000 written complaints. In 2007, the agency helped generate nearly $9 million in financial relief in the form of reversed fees and charges for consumers.

Mr. Hattix joined the OCC in 1988 as an Assistant National Bank Examiner in the Deerfield, Illinois Duty Station, after graduating from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with a degree in Business Administration. He was reassigned to the Milwaukee Duty Station the following January and received his commission as a National Bank Examiner in March, 1994, with a specialty in Consumer and Community Reinvestment Act compliance. He became a specialist in Bank Information Systems in 1996 and a BIS Lead Expert in July 2000. In July 2003, he was named Assistant Deputy Comptroller for the Cincinnati/Columbus Field Office, where he directly supervised 40 banks. 

As Ombudsman, Mr. Hattix will report directly to Comptroller Dugan.

Mr. Golden joined the OCC in 1974 as an assistant national bank examiner in the Houston duty station. Over the course of his career, he shouldered a variety of responsibilities, including his work on seriously troubled banks in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as serving as Examiner-in-Charge of Shawmut Bank. In 1993, he was named the OCC's first Ombudsman, and in 1998 he led the formation of the agency's Customer Assistance Group.