U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name financier Steven Mnuchin as his choice for Treasury secretary and the announcement could come as early as Wednesday, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the transition. </s> Steven Mnuchin, the Trump campaign's finance director, arrives at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Trump Tower in New York, U.S. on Tuesday.

Steven Mnuchin is a former Goldman Sachs executive and a trusted aide of Donald Trump. The U.S. president-elect is yet to name two major Cabinet positions — the Secretary of State and the Defence Secretary.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will name campaign loyalist and former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as his Treasury secretary, multiple media reports said on Tuesday.

The nomination of Mr. Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary is expected to be formally announced later on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump is also expected to name Wilbur Ross Jr as his Commerce Secretary.

On Monday, Mr. Trump nominated Elaino Chao as his Transportation Secretary, hinting that he was on a fast track mode to fill up his Cabinet-level positions as quickly as possible.

He is yet to name two major Cabinet positions — the Secretary of State and the Defence Secretary.

Mr. Mnuchin, 53, was a trusted aide of Mr. Trump during the elections as he was his national finance chairman.

“When Mr.Trump is sworn on January 20, the success of his presidency will rest as much in Mr. Mnuchin’s hands as those of any other presidential appointee,” The Wall Street Journal said.

“Mr. Mnuchin’s longtime Wall Street ties — his father spent his entire career at Goldman — make him a traditional pick for the Treasury spot. But the choice is at odds with Mr. Trump’s message that economic and political elites have left the country damaged. Still, his establishment profile may sit more comfortably with the Republicans in the Senate, which decides whether to confirm the nominee,” the daily said.

Mr. Mnuchin met Trump in New York on Monday. Mr. Trump’s Treasury pick was criticised by the Democrats.

“Mr. Trump is giving Republicans and their special interest friends an early Christmas gift by tapping a former Wall Street executive to lead the US Treasury Department,” said Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader in the Congress.

“By selecting a Wall Street banker who profited from the financial crisis to serve as America’s chief tax regulator and main overseer of our financial system, President-elect Trump is handing over the keys to the same players who drove our economy into a ditch,” Ms. Pelosi alleged.

“Nominating Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary — a billionaire hedge fund manager and Goldman Sachs alumnus who preyed on home owners struggling during the recession — is a slap in the face to voters who hoped he would shake up Washington,” said the Democratic National Committee Communications Director Adam Hodge. </s> (JTA) — Trump campaign finance chief Steve Mnuchin confirmed that president-elect Donald Trump has selected him to serve as Treasury Secretary.

Mnuchin made the announcement during an early morning CNBC interview appearing with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr., who has been nominated as commerce secretary.

Mnuchin, 53, who is Jewish, made his fortune as a banker for Goldman Sachs, and has also helmed smaller banks and produced blockbusters like “Avatar” and the “X-Men” movies.

Multiple media outlets, including Politico, the New York Times and the Washington Post, said in alerts posted late Tuesday that Mnuchin was Trump’s Treasury pick.

Mnuchin, who backed Mitt Romney in the 2012 election and joined the Trump campaign in April, was among the earliest of Republican establishment figures to support Trump’s insurgent campaign for the Republican nomination. His father is the noted art dealer, Robert Mnuchin, who also made a fortune at Goldman Sachs. </s> WASHINGTON (JTA) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary reportedly is Steven Mnuchin, the banker and movie producer who was his campaign’s finance chief.

Mnuchin, who is Jewish and in his mid-50s, made his fortune as a banker for Goldman Sachs, and has also helmed smaller banks and produced blockbusters like Avatar and the X-Men movies.

Multiple media, including Politico, the New York Times and the Washington Post, said in alerts posted late Tuesday that Mnuchin was Trump’s Treasury pick.

Mnuchin, who backed Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, was among the earliest of Republican establishment figures to support Trump’s insurgent campaign for the Republican nomination. His father is the noted art dealer, Robert Mnuchin, who also made a fortune at Goldman Sachs.

The choice of Mnuchin for Treasury secretary may come as a surprise, considering how Trump campaigned against moneyed interests victimizing working classes. One California bank Mnuchin headed, IndyMac, was dubbed the “foreclosure machine,” according to NPR, profiting from as many as 36,000 foreclosures.

Mnuchin is not the only Goldman Sachs alumnus advising Trump – his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, also worked for the bank. Trump nonetheless castigated Wall Street during his campaign, and in one of his final ads cast Goldman Sachs’ CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, as a villain. </s> (JTA) — Trump campaign finance chief Steve Mnuchin confirmed that President-elect Donald Trump has selected him to serve as Treasury secretary.

Mnuchin made the announcement during an early morning CNBC interview appearing with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr., who has been nominated as Commerce secretary.

Mnuchin, 53, who is Jewish, made his fortune as a banker for Goldman Sachs, and has also helmed smaller banks and also produced the blockbuster films “Avatar” and the “X-Men,” among others.

Multiple media outlets, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, said in alerts posted late Tuesday that Mnuchin was Trump’s Treasury pick.

Mnuchin, who backed Mitt Romney in the 2012 election and joined the Trump campaign in April, was among the earliest of Republican establishment figures to support Trump’s insurgent campaign for the party’s nomination. His father is the noted art dealer Robert Mnuchin, who also made his fortune at Goldman Sachs. </s> WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm former banker and Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary on Monday, installing the Trump administration's point-man on tax reform, financial de-regulation and economic diplomacy efforts.

The Senate voted 53-47 to confirm the Goldman Sachs veteran's nomination on a mostly party-line vote, with only one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voting in favor.

Mnuchin was expected to be sworn into office on Monday night in a brief White House… </s> President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker who profited from the housing meltdown, as his Treasury secretary, according to an official briefed on the decision.

Mnuchin's career has been full of contradictions. He started as a Wall Street insider working for old-line firms before running a series of eclectic businesses -- including his own hedge fund and a West Coast consumer bank. In recent years, he has been a Hollywood movie producer.

He served as finance chairman of Trump's presidential campaign and has been one of Trump's closest economic advisers. His nomination will be announced as soon as Wednesday, the official said.

Democrats immediately signaled their strong opposition to the expected nomination, which would require Senate confirmation. In a statement, the Democratic National Committee quipped "So much for draining the swamp." The DNC added that "nominating Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary... is a slap in the face to voters who hoped he would shake up Washington."

As Treasury secretary, the 53-year-old Mnuchin would be the face of the American economy around the world. The Treasury Department has expansive responsibility over business and oversees banking regulations, financial markets and the IRS. It has about 100,000 employees, an estimated 91,000 of them at the IRS.

Besides co-signing the currency, the Treasury secretary is Uncle Sam's banker -- paying the bills, collecting taxes, managing the federal government debt and selling billions of dollars a year in Treasury bonds.

Mnuchin, like his father before him, was a partner at Goldman. He worked for the firm for 17 years, joining at age 22 and leaving just before his 40th birthday, in 2002.

He briefly joined the hedge fund of his former college roommate Eddie Lampert. Mnuchin still serves as a director of Sears Holdings (SHLD), of which Lampert is chairman and CEO.

After less than a year, he left Lampert to work as a portfolio manager for the hedge fund of George Soros, the billionaire financier who has bankrolled liberal candidates and causes -- and who was depicted as a villain in Trump's last campaign ad.

He only stayed a year, leaving in September 2004 to start his own hedge fund, Dune Capital Management.

As a producer, he has put out films including "American Sniper," "The Lego Movie" and this summer's "Suicide Squad." His latest film, which opened right before Thanksgiving, is called "Rules Don't Apply."

Mnuchin joined the Trump campaign as finance chairman in May, and sources tell CNN he made it clear early that he wanted the Treasury job. He recruited deputies before he was tapped for the job.

Mnuchin has contributed to both Republican and Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton's Senate campaigns and 2008 presidential run. He gave to Barack Obama's Senate and presidential campaigns and to Charles Schumer, the new Democratic leader in the Senate.

Mnuchin and his brother were sued by the trustee trying to recover money for Bernard Madoff's victims after his Ponzi scheme unraveled in 2008. They were executors of their mother's estate, and had withdrawn her investment with Madoff shortly after she died in 2005.

A court eventually blocked the trustee, Irving Picard, from collecting Mnuchin's mother's $3.2 million in profits withdrawn from the Madoff fund long before its collapse.

Mnuchin led the group that bought failed subprime lender IndyMac for pennies on the dollar in 2009, about a year after the FDIC took over the California bank following a run on deposits by customers.

IndyMac had become a poster child for the risky home loans that brought on the housing crisis and the meltdown in financial markets. The FDIC agreed to assume much of the losses as part of its sale to Mnuchin, who renamed it OneWest.

But regulators soon questioned OneWest's foreclosure practices, which included so-called robo-signings that pushed homeowners into foreclosure without proper review or due process.

The bank was one of many that agreed to pay millions in fines to compensate customers. Occupy Los Angeles protesters showed up at Mnuchin's Bel Air mansion. And this month, two fair housing groups in California filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, accusing the bank of discriminating against minority borrowers during his tenure there.

Mnuchin eventually sold OneWest to CIT Group (CIT) in 2014 for $3.4 billion and joined CIT as part of the deal. When he left CIT less than two years later, he received a $10.9 million severance package. </s> Trump Picks Steve Mnuchin To Lead Treasury Department

Enlarge this image toggle caption Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump has picked his campaign finance chairman, Steve Mnuchin, to be his Treasury secretary. The Wall Street banker spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner, and is now chief executive of Dune Capital Management, a privately owned hedge fund.

Mnuchin confirmed his selection Wednesday during a joint CNBC interview with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr., who has been tapped for commerce secretary.

"Steve Mnuchin is a world-class financier, banker and businessman, and has played a key role in developing our plan to build a dynamic, booming economy that will create millions of jobs," Trump said in a statement.

Mnuchin, 53, joined the Trump campaign in April when the organization's fundraising campaign barely existed. He also was involved deeply in developing the president-elect's tax proposals, which could deliver as much as $6 trillion in tax reductions over 10 years, but might also contribute to much larger budget deficits. As Treasury secretary he would take a lead role in developing policies aimed at boosting the country's economic growth.

"I understand what needs to be done to fix the economy," Mnuchin said in a statement, adding he would help implement "a bold economic agenda."

Over the years, Mnuchin has contributed to both Republican and Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He has also been a financier of high-profile movies, including this past summer's Suicide Squad, a big financial success. He also was an executive producer of the movies American Sniper and Mad Max: Fury Road.

The banker's involvement in OneWest Bank following the 2008 housing market crash could complicate his confirmation.

In 2009, Mnuchin put together a group of billionaire investors, including George Soros and hedge-fund titan John Paulson, that bought failed California-based bank IndyMac, a big mortgage lender. The FDIC agreed to absorb the losses of the bank above a certain threshold.

The bank was renamed OneWest Bank, and Mnuchin became its chairman and CEO. The bank developed a reputation during the recession for being quick to foreclose on delinquent homeowners, closing on more than 36,000 households under Mnuchin, according the housing-advocacy group California Reinvestment Coalition. In 2011, protesters went to Mnuchin's Bel Air mansion with a sign that read, "Stop Taking Our Homes." </s> Trump's pick for treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was confirmed Monday evening after several attempts by Democrats to slow down the process.
Trump picks banker and businessman Steven Mnuchin to be his Secretary of the Treasury.