Examiner Spotlight: Wayne Rushton

Recruited in 1965, Wayne Rushton was one of the first examiners required to have a college degree. He found that the OCC rewarded diligence, courage, and technical know-how, and he quickly developed a sixth sense for banks with hidden problems. One of those was the National Bank of Georgia, owned by Bert Lance, Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter. Lance left that office after Rushton and OCC colleagues uncovered questionable use of the bank’s assets.

Rushton helped establish the OCC’s Multinational Banking Program and became one of its earliest deputy comptrollers. Under Comptroller Eugene Ludwig, Rushton became the Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy.

On September 11, 2001, Rushton was with Comptroller John Hawke and other senior staff in Dallas. They had already boarded a plane back to Washington, D.C., when air traffic was grounded. Returning to their conference, they watched the events unfold. To get home, the team rented the last available van in Dallas and drove the entire 23 hours, stopping at many Waffle House restaurants on the journey.

A career marked by high-level cases and breakthroughs in supervisory policy and execution culminated in Rushton’s appointment as Chief National Bank Examiner.

We’ve been doing bank supervision longer and better than anyone, and we know it. That’s what makes our people special. We stick together when times are tough, personally and professionally, better than people realize.

When he retired in 2008 after 43 years of OCC service, Rushton was given a wall-size Waffle House menu.