Sheila Bair Ending Relationship With Santander

Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, known as a financial reformer and sharp critic of Wall Street’s revolving door, is distancing herself from a handful of financial engagements that had raised eyebrows.

Sheila Bair said she is leaving the board of directors of Spain’s Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:SAN) (MCE:SAN) as well as scaling back her work with the legal / lobbying firm DLA Piper as well as ending her chairmanship of the Systemic Risk Council and an advisory role with Boston Consulting Group, the Financial Times is reporting. She will remain on the board at Thomson Reuters, Host Hotels and itBit USA.

Sheila Bair focusing on college presidency

Sheila Bair leaves Santander, one of the largest sub-prime auto lenders, at a time when she says travel to Spain was negatively impacting her new role as president of Washington College in Maryland. “Though I have very much enjoyed my service on the board of this historic banking institution, the frequent trips to Spain are time consuming and, I fear, would interfere with my responsibilities to the college,” Bair wrote in a letter to the Systemic Risk Council that was reviewed by the FT. The departure is expected to become official Friday.

Sheila Bair departure comes amid other moves at the bank

Sheila Bair’s departure from Santander is among the most high profile of her moves, as the troubled Spanish bank had difficulty passing the U.S. Federal Reserve’s stress test as early as this March, as reported in ValueWalk. The Federal Reserve identified specific deficiencies in a number of key areas, including governance, internal controls, risk identification and risk management. The move also comes as the sometimes controversial Blythe Masters was recently appointed chair of Santander Consumer USA Holding.

Sheila Bair had been a noted critic of “too big to fail banks” and was leery of schemes to attach liability for the bank’s risky bets to consumer bank deposits linked to FDIC insurance. Such stands during her time in government raised eyebrows in certain financial reform circles when she crossed over to work with the firms she once fought during her time in government.

Here time in the private sector was an “education,” she noted in her letter. “It has broadened my perspective, enabling me to see things ‘from the other side’ so to speak. And I believe it is to Santander’s credit that they wanted someone with my views regarding financial reform on their board,” she wrote.

“I respect the way Santander successfully navigated through the financial crisis by sticking to a more traditional banking business model,” she told Bloomberg when she was appointed to the Santander board on January 27, 2014.