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AP Enterprise: Brown bank regulator an insider

In this photo taken Monday Jan. 9, 2012, Jan Owen, Gov. Jerry Brown's appointee to head the Department of Corporations, testifies before the Assembly Banking Committee in Sacramento, Calif. Consumer groups say Owen's background working for companies that were at the heart of the mortgage meltdown raises questions about her approach at the department that oversees California banking, financial and consumer regulations. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

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By JULIET WILLIAMS, The Associated Press Updated 7:46 PM Tuesday, February 7, 2012

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown's appointee to head the department that oversees banking, financial and consumer regulations in California led a trade association that fought against tighter lending restrictions before the subprime mortgage crisis exploded and was an executive with Washington Mutual when the now-failed bank was among the most aggressive marketers of loans to high-risk borrowers.

Jan Owen, a Democrat, also is named in a congressional inquiry into whether lawmakers and certain executives received preferential treatment for home loans, although she was not accused of wrongdoing.

Consumer advocates said they are watching Owen's decisions carefully to see how she performs in her role as commissioner of the California Department of Corporations. The Democratic governor appointed her in December to the $143,000-a-year position, and she started in January.

Owen, 59, of West Sacramento, has a long resume in California, including stints in both business and government, but it is her history with organizations that were at the heart of the mortgage meltdown that stands out in a state that has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the nation.

Owen served as state director of government and industry affairs at Washington Mutual from 2002 until its collapse in 2008, one of the largest bank failures in American history. It was taken over by JP Morgan Chase, where Owen stayed on as vice president of government affairs until 2009.

"It is of concern if a person who takes a job there, at that pay level in particular, has such experience, particularly with the mortgage bankers association, JPMorgan and Washington Mutual," said Rick Jacobs, president of the Courage Campaign, which advocates on behalf of policies for poor and working-class families.

"These are big institutions, some of which don't even exist anymore because of what they did in the mortgage business, and what they did to California," Jacobs said. "That should be watched very carefully."

Owen declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press for this story, but a spokesman for the Department of Corporations, Mark Leyes, responded to questions by email and telephone. He said Owen's professional background is an asset because she understands consumer issues.

"Understanding these industries and how they function— and fail — improves the ability to regulate effectively," Leyes said in an email.

He said the department protects consumers by licensing and regulating the network of financial services and securities businesses, including brokers, dealers, investment advisers, financial planners and lenders. Because Owen "really understands how these complex industries operate, she knows what to look for and how to crack down," Leyes said.

Officials with several consumer groups said they were hesitant to openly criticize Owen's background because they will have to work with her in her new role. Lawmakers similarly were hesitant because Owen's appointment still has to be approved in the Legislature.

Owen's appointment requires confirmation by the state Senate within one year, but the chamber is not expected to schedule a confirmation hearing for several months, Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said Tuesday.

Some consumer advocates who have worked with Owen in the past praised her, saying she was responsive to their concerns.

Orson Aguilar, executive director of the Greenlining Institute, a Berkeley-based national policy group that advocates for racial and economic justice, said he often found himself on the opposite side of the table from Owen on consumer protection and affordable housing issues when she was an executive at Washington Mutual.

"I think people would be surprised, but definitely she was somebody who was easy to work with and she got it. She just didn't pay lip service, she tried her hardest" to help poor communities, he said.

Before joining Washington Mutual, Owen was executive director of the California Mortgage Bankers Association from 2000 to 2002, where she worked on behalf of lenders on regulatory issues that she now is in charge of enforcing.

Owen was among those who argued against a 2001 bill that attempted to control high-interest predatory lending several years before the collapse of the housing industry, which helped propel the state's unemployment rate to more than 12 percent during the height of the recession.

SB60 by then-Sen. Joe Dunn, a Democrat, would have required lenders to assess whether potential recipients of high-interest, high-risk loans had the means to repay them and required the attorney general to document complaints against lenders.

The bill sought to end the "abusive practices imposed upon a captive market," according to its text.

"These abusive tactics, known as 'predatory lending' practices, range from the charging of exorbitant fees and interest rates from those least likely to afford them, to aggressive sales of costly and unnecessary services, to outright fraud aimed at forcing foreclosures and allowing seizures of property," the bill said.

That was 2001, long before most Americans had heard about the complex lending and financial instruments that contributed to the collapse of the housing market and billions of dollars in bank bailouts.

A report that year in American Banker, a trade magazine, notes that a hearing on the bill was canceled and said Owen's office contacted the senator to try to "work with him" on it. A newsletter for bankers association members from 2001 quotes Owen as saying the legislation and other bills like it would turn lenders away from California, which would lead to complaints that low-income buyers and the elderly could not receive loans.

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