John Hawke’s nomination as Comptroller of the Currency was expected to be reported out of the Senate Banking Committee Feb. 11, and is expected to be confirmed by the Senate shortly afterwards, ending a period of uncertainty that began with the departure of Eugene A. Ludwig at the end of his term last April.

The most important obstacle to Hawke’s nomination was removed Feb. 1 when Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., ranking minority member of the committee, removed a hold on Hawke’s nomination. Sarbanes’s actions were a message to Hawke and the Treasury Department he was unhappy they had blocked financial modernization legislation that contained provisions Sarbanes sought.

But the fact that Democrats in Congress are coalescing around President Clinton and his key adviser Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and the passage of time, made it only a matter of time before Sarbanes lifted the hold.

But Hawke’s confirmation is not likely to result in a huge immediate expansion of bank powers as the new comptroller and his superiors at the Treasury Department await the course of banking legislation. The Senate Banking Committee is likely to deal with financial modernization legislation acceptable to the agency by mid-March; the House Banking Committee is on a more uncertain course, but chairman James Leach, R-Iowa, has said he wants to pass such legislation through his committee by the end of March.

Given the fact that Congress appears to be more respectful of the bank charter than in legislation that failed to pass last year, Hawke’s general posture will be to keep the agency out of the spotlight while the legislation goes through the process, leaving banks or trade groups to take the initiative in expanding bank powers.

That policy is already in effect through the agency’s decision to file an amicus brief, rather than intervene as a party, in an Ohio case dealing with state laws that hamstrung national bank efforts to sell insurance.