Washington • In his first 21 months on the job, Randal K. Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman for supervision and regulation, met at least 22 times with partners at his former law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, which represents many of the nation’s largest banks.
Those meetings, disclosed in public schedules and other releases, suggest a closeness between America’s most important bank regulator and the industry he watches over. Quarles was a bank lawyer at Davis Polk in the 1980s and ’90s. At the Fed, he has conferred with former colleagues there, including Randall Guynn, a close friend.