NEW YORK (Reuters) - The White House will nominate markets regulator Christy Goldsmith Romero as Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair imminently as it targets the week of July 8 for her first hearing, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Goldsmith Romero, a Democratic commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will replace Martin Gruenberg who is stepping down after a damning probe found widespread sexual harassment and other misconduct at the top banking regulator.

Kristin Johnson, the CFTC's other Democratic commissioner who was also in the running for the FDIC chair role, will be nominated for Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the Treasury Department at the same time, the same source said.

The White House declined comment. A spokesperson for the CFTC declined to comment. The Treasury and FDIC were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.

(Writing by Michelle Price; additional reporting by Douglas Gillison and Pete Schroeder and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Megan Davies)