The District of Columbia, which had five licensed captive insurers when Mr. White was hired in 2003, had 33 licensed captives with another seven in various stages of the application process upon his exit, according to the department.

"I'm very much looking forward to this," Mr. White told NU Online News Service of his appointment as D.C. commissioner. "If you had asked me two years ago, would I go into another regulatory position, my answer would have been, 'Probably not likely.'" He added, however, that "this administration wants to put some things in the right direction for D.C., and I'd very much like to be part of that."

This job is a very different from his role as captive director, he said, "because it's an appointment by the mayor [Vincent C. Gray]. Technically it's part of the mayor's cabinet—it encompasses all of their financial services in D.C."

Mr. White, who brings in-depth knowledge about the insurance industry and captives, said, "One of the things I think is key for regulators, especially given the complexities of some of the things going on in financial markets now, I think it's actually a benefit if you've worked in the industry that you're regulating."

From that standpoint, he added, "One of the reasons this was of interest to me and I accepted it is it's not isolated to just one portion of [financial services]. D.C. is unique because it has all of the financial services on one platform. I think we'll be able to do some interesting things."

Mr. White said he plans to begin his new position by making assessments, communicating his goals to the team already in place and understanding their accomplishments and priorities.

His first task, he said, is to talk with people who have been working there, many of whom he knows from his previous tenure there.

"Something like this can't be done by one individual," he said. "So what you have to do is make sure everybody has basically the same strategic vision and that you're all on the same page."

In South Carolina, David Black, who was Gov. Nikki Haley's choice for insurance director, was approved by the state senate. Gov. Haley said in a statement, "We're pleased David Black can get to work at insurance, and we'd like to thank Senators Wes Hayes and David Thomas, as well as the entire Senate, for moving quickly on this confirmation."