The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Neal S. Wolin, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's pick for his deputy, whose history with the department has raised a few eyebrows.
During the Clinton administration, Wolin served as the Treasury's Department's top lawyer, and supervised the team of colleagues that drafted a banking deregulation bill that many experts -- and President Obama himself -- say contributed significantly to the global economic meltdown.
The bill in question was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed Depression-era restrictions allowing commercial and investment banks to join forces.
The prominent blog The Plum Line says Wolin "provided the technical and legal drafting" for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
But Geithner, in a statement, said Wolin brings "a deep knowledge of the Treasury Department and strong managerial experience in both the private and public sectors."
In February, Wolin was named deputy assistant to President Obama and deputy counsel to the president for economic policy.
From 2001 to 2008, Wolin served at The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., most recently as president and chief operating officer for property and casualty operations and previously as general counsel. Earlier in his career, he also worked in private law practice at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, DC.
Wolin is a graduate of Yale College, the University of Oxford, and Yale Law School.
