Cool Camp

In five years as chief regulator of the 5,011 U.S. national banks, James J. Saxon became one of the Government's most activist bureaucrats and one of the most contentious. He chartered more than 500 new banks, permitted 510 banking mergers, and empowered commercial banks for the first time to get into revenue-bond underwriting, the direct-leasing business and insurance selling. Along the way, he irritated two U.S. Presidents and obstreperously tangled with such Washington Pooh-Bahs as Robert Kennedy, William McChesney Martin, Nicholas Katzenbach, Senator John McClellan and Congressman Wright Patman--as well as leaders of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Independent Bankers Association.

With that track record, the Comptroller of the Currency finished his term and agreed to take a high position at an as yet unnamed Midwestern bank. Thereupon, President Johnson last week appointed a successor who everybody hopes will be just as effective but somewhat less abrasive than Saxon.

The new chief of Washington's oldest regulatory agency is William B. Camp, a placid Texan who has invested 29 of his 52 years in the 105-year-old Comptroller's office, rising from bank examiner to Saxon's first deputy. In naming Camp, Johnson followed his recent tendency to select noncontroversial careerists to head regulatory agencies. The appointment was hailed unanimously by bankers, Congressmen, officials of other Government agencies and Jimmy Saxon. Reported the American Banker, daily bible of moneymen: "Almost everyone who has been associated with Mr. Camp considers him an affable, easy-to-get-along-with individual who knows the ins and outs of the business."

The White House wanted a Comptroller who would carry on Saxon's expansionist policies but consolidate more than innovate. Camp promises "no drastic changes" immediately, but expects to push training programs for bank examiners, expand automation in banking, strengthen the supervision of foreign banks, and continue Saxon's chartering and merger designs, though at a reduced clip. Merely to digest what Saxon bit off will keep Camp fully occupied. His office is involved in six antitrust suits concerning bank mergers. The trend in the courts so far has been to support the Comptroller against the Attorney General, ruling for mergers that promote efficiency even if they require concentration.

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