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**DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY**

**OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS**

August 10, 2006

 

 

Dear Mr. President:

 

            I am honored to have had the opportunity to serve in your
administration for the last five years as U.S. Executive Director of the
IMF, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, and
currently as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance.  My
service in these roles has been a great privilege, and I am proud of the
contribution my colleagues and I have been able to make.  As I stressed
when asked to extend my work at the Treasury into the second term of
your administration, however, the burdens of this lengthy public service
on my family have been great, and I noted then that it would be time for
me to return to the private sector around the date of the mid-term
elections.  In line with those discussions, and in order to allow for
the selection of a successor and an appropriate transition, I am now
submitting my resignation as Under Secretary of the Treasury, which I
would propose be effective when the 109^th^ Congress adjourns.

 

               The last five years have been challenging and eventful
ones for the economy and the financial system.  At the Treasury, we
dealt with severe financial stress in a number of emerging markets,
including the Argentine sovereign bond default, the largest in history. 
We took steps to improve the mechanism for collective action in
sovereign debt workouts.  We maintained an important dialogue with the
EU on financial sector matters that addressed cross-border complications
of our evolving financial regulations.  We undertook the financial
diplomacy that began China's movement to greater currency flexibility. 
We reached agreement to relieve the HIPC countries' unsustainable
burdens of debt and to increase aid in the form of grants.   And we put
together an international coalition to freeze terrorist assets as well
as negotiating the reduction of Iraq's debt burden by 80%.

 

               We have also worked to promote investment and job
creation, from both domestic and international capital; to improve the
resiliency of the financial sector to both physical and financial
shocks; to develop an appropriate policy response to the issues
surrounding terrorism risk insurance; to increase transparency in the
government's financial accounting; to refine our debt management
practices, including the reintroduction of the 30-year Treasury bond;
and to improve our financial regulatory system, including addressing the
systemic risks associated with the activities of the housing GSEs.

 

               I am honored to have had a role in all these efforts, and
to have had your confidence and the confidence of Secretaries O'Neill,
Snow, and Paulson in executing that role.  I am particularly honored to
have worked with my relentlessly dedicated and enormously professional
colleagues on the Treasury staff, who are one of our country's great
national assets. Thank you again for the privilege of serving under your
leadership.

 

                                                                                      
Sincerely,

 

 

 

                                                                                
Randal K. Quarles

 

 

The President

     The White House

           Washington, D.C.           

 

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