Former Oklahoma Governor Keating to Head Banking Trade Group

One of the largest bank lobbying groups in Washington has named the Republican former governor of Oklahoma to lead its campaign to shape the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Frank Keating, 66, has been named the next chief executive officer of the American Bankers Association. Keating, who served in a similar capacity for the American Council of Life Insurers, will take the reins of the Washington-based trade group on Jan. 1 when Edward Yingling, the current president and CEO, retires.

“Coming out of the financial crisis, we are entering a period of great change for our industry,” Stephen P. Wilson, the ABA’s chairman, said today in a statement. “We wanted a strong, proven leader and consensus builder who will listen to the concerns of bankers and be a dynamic champion for our industry during this critical time.”

Wilson, in the statement, said Keating was the “unanimous choice” of the search committee.

The ABA, one of the most prominent industry lobbying groups in Washington, represents banks of all sizes. It is in the midst of a campaign to shape the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law enacted this year. The industry group opposed much of the final law, specifically the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The new law “contains a tsunami of new rules and restrictions for traditional banks that had nothing to do with causing the financial crisis in the first place,” Yingling said in a statement the day the President Barack Obama signed the bill into law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Phil Mattingly in Washington at pmattingly@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lawrence Roberts at lroberts13@bloomberg.net

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Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating

Michael Smith/Newsmakers

Frank Keating, pictured here as Governor of Oklahoma.

Frank Keating, pictured here as Governor of Oklahoma. Photographer: Michael Smith/Newsmakers