As Deputy Chairman, 2001–2005, Reich served as the Chair of FDIC's Audit Committee during a time when the General Accounting Office issued reportable conditions regarding information security at the Corporation.

On June 17, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intention to disband the Office of Thrift Supervision as part of a program of regulatory reform, citing "loopholes that have allowed important institutions to cherry-pick among banking rules".

AIG FP was a major issuer of Credit Default Swaps related to the securitized, outstanding interest of these and other subprime loans.

[11] Prior to IndyMac's failure on July 11, 2008, the bank had come to rely heavily on higher cost, less stable, brokered deposits, as well as secured borrowings, to fund its operations.

The bank had focused on stated income and other aggressively underwritten loans in areas with rapidly escalating home prices, particularly in California and Florida.

According to a source with knowledge of the incident, at another point Mr. Dochow limited the scope of a review by OTS regulators of IndyMac's portfolio of loans and other assets, overruling the advice of others in the agency.

[17] Commenting on the report, Inspector General Eric Thorson dismissed Reich's claim that Senator Schumer's letters caused the failure.

Marla Freedman, the assistant inspector general for audit, detailed a pattern of excess risk-taking and abuse of the lending process at IndyMac and the OTS's consistent and concurrent failure to act.

Among other things, he said the OTS designation meant U.S. companies operating in Europe could avoid testing "the qualifications of key personnel" and requirements to keep more cash and assets in reserve to cushion against losses.

In a March 2007 report on financial regulation, the Government Accountability Office looked at the OTS and found "a disparity between the size of the agency and the diverse firms it oversees."

[21] In March 2008, Acting Director Polakoff admitted told a U.S. Senate panel that the Office of Thrift Supervision "fell short" in its oversight of American International Group Inc. Polakoff admitted that the regulator "did not sufficiently assess the susceptibility of highly illiquid, complex instruments," to ratings downgrades and "should have directed the company to stop originating credit-default swap products before December 2005.

He has also served as a board member for a number of civic organizations, and was active for many years in youth baseball programs in Sarasota, FL.