Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions Loses Accreditation

The Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF, in Spanish) lost last September its accreditation with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), an entity that monitors the procedures and operations of state agencies that regulate financial institutions in the United States, the CSBS confirmed to the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish). According to the OCIF, the Washington, D.C.-based organization identified deficiencies in its bank regulatory and examination program that led to the loss of accreditation. “As OCIF’s participation in CSBS’s bank accreditation program is entirely voluntary, the action has no effect on OCIF’s ability or authority to continue to perform its bank supervisory and regulatory functions, as established by law,” the main regulator of Puerto Rico’s banking industry said in a written statement. When asked by the CPI, the CSBS refused to give the reasons why the OCIF lost the accreditation it had had since 1994. The loss of accreditation comes amid the pending trial in federal court against former Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced, who is accused of having dismissed former OCIF Commissioner George Joyner in 2020 to appoint Víctor Rodríguez Bonilla, who had allegedly been chosen for that position by the president of one of the banks regulated by the OCIF.

Pierde acreditación la Oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras

La desacreditación ocurre en momentos en que en el Tribunal Federal está pendiente el juicio contra la exgobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced, a quien se le imputa haber destituido en el 2020 al excomisionado de la OCIF George Joyner para nombrar a Víctor Rodríguez Bonilla, quien presuntamente había sido escogido para ese puesto por el presidente de uno de los bancos que regulaba la OCIF. A cambio de esa alegada interferencia en el nombramiento del funcionario, Vázquez Garced recibiría un beneficio económico para su campaña política, según la acusación.