WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - The White House is close

to naming derivatives regulator Christy Goldsmith Romero to

replace Martin Gruenberg to head the Federal Deposit Insurance

Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people

familiar with the matter.

Gruenberg, a Democrat, said in May he would step down once a

successor was confirmed by the Senate, succumbing to pressure

from lawmakers who said the bank regulator needed fresh

leadership after an investigation found widespread sexual

harassment and other misconduct at the agency.

Goldsmith Romero, 53, has a background in enforcement and

has led major actions against Wall Street banks and other

financial firms during her career. She joined the Commodity

Futures Trading Commission in March 2022 after a decade

investigating financial crime and fraud as the watchdog of a key

2009 financial crisis bailout program.

White House officials have also discussed two other women

for the job, but Goldsmith Romero has emerged as the

front-runner, the newspaper said. A formal announcement could

come later this week, according to the report, though it said

that President Joe Biden had not yet made a final decision.

The White House declined to comment on the report. Goldsmith

Romero also declined to comment. The FDIC did not immediately

respond to a request for comment.

During her tenure as special inspector general for the

Troubled Asset Relief Program from 2012 to 2022, Goldsmith

Romero's office brought cases and cooperated in federal

enforcement actions against major corporations, including

Goldman Sachs ( GS ), Morgan Stanley ( MS ) and General Motors ( GM )

.

Goldsmith Romero also received awards from the U.S. attorney

general and Department of Justice's Criminal Division after her

office uncovered a multibillion-dollar fraud, leading to jail

terms for former executives at the former mortgage lender

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and the failed Colonial Bank.

In progressive circles, she is seen as a strong fit for the

FDIC role and as having the management experience and skill set

necessary to help fix the agency's "toxic" environment, as the

investigation described the FDIC, and address other challenges.

As a CFTC commissioner, Goldsmith Romero has advocated for

stronger policing of U.S. markets and stiffer penalties for

misconduct.

Most notably, she has pushed for the agency to secure more

admissions of wrongdoing from companies when settling

enforcement actions, particularly from repeat offenders.

She has also led the agency's efforts to better understand

the potential impact of artificial intelligence on financial

markets.

Prior to being appointed as the watchdog for the Troubled

Asset Relief Program, Goldsmith Romero was counsel to then U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairs Mary Schapiro and

Christopher Cox and had investigated securities law violations.

She started her career as a law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy

Court in Nevada after graduating from Brigham Young University

Law School in 1995.

The FDIC is also grappling with the fallout of last year's

bank failures, which exposed supervisory weaknesses at the

regulator, and is trying to finalize a handful of contentious

new rules for Wall Street banks, including major capital hikes.