John Dugan has been named chairman of the Joint Forum, a group of senior financial sector regulators from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

The Joint Forum’s parent organisations, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, announced Dugan’s appointment, which is effective immediately and will run until December 2009.

Dugan, the Comptroller of the Currency in the US, succeeds Dirk Witteveen, executive director of the Netherlands Bank, who passed away on September 13. Witteveen was an active member of the Joint Forum for several years, leading up to his appointment as chairman in January 2006.

The regulators said that Dugan’s experience as a member of the Basel Committee and his extensive experience in financial services places him in an excellent position to chair the Joint Forum.

The Joint Forum was established in 1996 under the aegis of the BCBS, IOSCO and the IAIS to deal with issues common to the banking, securities and insurance sectors, including the supervision of financial conglomerates.