Under Fire for ‘Toxic’ Work Culture, Bank Regulator Apologizes Again

Just days after the release of a scathing report detailing a culture of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, its chair, Martin Gruenberg, submitted congressional testimony on Tuesday that indicated he had no plans to step down.

In prepared remarks he plans to deliver to the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, Mr. Gruenberg largely repeated his previous statements — that he was sorry for the harassment and abuse employees suffered, and that he and his staff were already working on making changes.

“I accept the findings of the report and, as chairman, I take full responsibility,” he said.

The hearings come as Mr. Gruenberg, a Democrat, faces calls from Republican lawmakers to resign. He has so far survived those demands with the backing of the White House and key Democratic lawmakers like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Maxine Waters of California.

Should Mr. Gruenberg be pressured to depart the agency after the hearings, that could also put into jeopardy a rule that the agency is proposing, along with other federal bank regulators, to tighten and expand oversight of the nation’s largest lenders, but that big banks have fiercely opposed.

Mr. Gruenberg has faced intense criticism since the release of the May 7 report, which described a culture of rampant abuse from senior examiners and other officials at the agency, including instances in which supervisors sent their employees nude photos of themselves or took them to brothels during business trips. The report was commissioned by a special committee that the F.D.I.C.’s board formed in response to a series of a Wall Street Journal articles last year.

Conducted by the Cleary Gottlieb law firm, the analysis also questioned whether Mr. Gruenberg, who has led the agency for 10 of the last 13 years, could remain effective in his role, given “the incidents of — and resulting reputation for — losing his temper and expressing anger with staff.”