President Joe Biden on Friday called on Congress to allow regulators to impose tougher penalties on the executives of failed banks, including clawing back compensation and making it easier to bar them from working in the industry.
Biden wants the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to be able to force the return of compensation paid to executives at a broader range of banks should they fail, and to lower the threshold for the regulator to impose fines and bar executives from working at another bank.
He called on Congress to grant the FDIC those powers after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank sent shockwaves through the global banking industry.
“Strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent mismanagement in the future,” Biden said in a statement. “Congress must act to impose tougher penalties for senior bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing.”
Currently the FDIC can only take back the compensation of executives at the largest banks in the nation, and other penalties on executives require “recklessness” or acting with “willful or continuing disregard" for their bank's health. Biden wants Congress to allow the regulator to impose penalties for “negligent” executives — a lower legal threshold.
Congress has already begun to address the aftermath of the bank failures.
On Friday, the House Financial Services Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, said in a letter to regulators that while she is crafting legislation to give regulators more authority, “it is critical that your agencies act now to investigate these bank failures and use the available enforcement tools you have to hold executives fully accountable for any wrongful activity.”
The Justice Department, Security and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve, the California state regulator of Silicon Valley Bank and several congressional committees have announced some form of investigation into the bank failure.
Additionally, a group of Senate Democrats on Thursday introduced the Deliver Executive Profits on Seized Institutions to Taxpayers Act, which would claw back profits made by bank executives on the sale of stocks and compensation bonuses earned within 60 days of a bank failure, among other things.
And Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reintroduced legislation this week to strengthen the SEC's ability to crack down on violations of securities laws.
The White House highlighted reports that Silicon Valley Bank CEO Gregory Becker sold $3 million worth of shares in the bank in the days before its collapse, saying Biden wants the FDIC to have the authority to go after that compensation.
The shuttering of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 and of New York’s Signature Bank two days later has revived bad memories of the financial crisis that plunged the United States into the Great Recession about 15 years ago.
Over the weekend the federal government, determined to restore public confidence in the banking system, moved to protect all of the banks’ deposits, even those that exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 limit per individual account.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who chairs the Banking Committee, welcomed Biden's call for congressional action, stating in an email that his committee "will be looking at all the ways we can protect working families’ money from risky bets that didn’t pay off in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street.
"That includes holding accountable the executives who ran this bank into the ground and the regulators tasked with overseeing them, and it includes working to reform our laws to better protect workers, small businesses, and taxpayers from corporate greed.”
John Core, an accounting professor who specializes in executive compensation and corporate governance, questioned whether increasing the authority of regulators was the right move, since “in the case of Silicon Valley, it’s not yet even clear who is to blame” for the bank's collapse.
“So many people think it was a regulatory failure, or it was because of rapid increases in interest rates due to inflation,” he said.
Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a nonprofit that advocates for tougher financial regulations, said the White House was right to encourage Congress to act.
“Regulators simply must have a full arsenal to severely punish faithless, irresponsible and reckless bank executives, officers and directors,” Kelleher said.
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27 Comments
dagon
That this was not done in the 80's under Reagan during the S and L crisis, or in 2008 banking crisis under Bush is a crime in and of itself. But for the Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street execs who rotate in and out of government it is a feature not a bug.
Privatizing the gains on financial bets and socializing the risk is the name of the game, and they do not want it to stop.
I wonder how the Republicans will stall this?
"We can't hold our job creators responsible for wrecking the economy!"
FizzBit
Ahh, a good laugh with my morning coffee.
Least we forget.....
The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
Glenn Greenwald
PBS' Frontline program on Tuesday night broadcast a new one-hour report on one of the greatest and most shameful failings of the Obama administration: the lack of even a single arrest or prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/23/untouchables-wall-street-prosecutions-obama
bass4funk
So you think they should get a bailout?
They can hold the banking execs responsible as well as Yellen.
wallace
Bush bailed out the banks in 2008.
bass4funk
The two Dems that destroyed more black lives and the economy and many still never recovered from it.
Says the left that have been suffering from TDS for 7 years obsessively rather than focus on the tanking economy.
https://www.dailynews.com/2023/03/16/president-bidens-economic-woes-continue-to-compound/
Cards fan
For what?
wallace
The republicans deregulated the banks.
Bank deregulation bill Donald Trump signed into law five years ago.
lincolnman
Hmmm.....
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/trump-signs-bank-bill-rolling-back-some-dodd-frank-regulations.html
Seven years? Thanks for finally admitting the economy tanked under the previous President...
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/28/us-economy-shrank-2020-worst-year-since-second-world-war
dagon
Is that what you inferred from my statements?
More pertinently, will Republicans join with Democrats to hold bankers responsible for the damage they cause with harsh fines, asset seizures and nationalizations of institutions?
That would be fair and what the "left" supports.
bass4funk
The republicans deregulated the banks.
Fannie Mae was issuing loans to people that couldn’t pay them back, Frank said before the collapse in 2008 that the economy was sound.
In September, Doug warned in these pages that the U.S. economy was on the brink of a crisis that would cause real pain for American households and businesses. Economists at the time posited that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to combat surging inflation, while necessary, portended an impending recession, or worse, a period of stagflation.
Six months later, the economic crisis that we – along with many others – feared is unfolding before our eyes, and has taken on a new dimension.
Last week, in the span of 72 hours, two banks – Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the country, and the New York-based Signature Bank – collapsed, forcing the federal government to intervene in order to avert a breakdown in the global financial system.
Doug Schon (a Democrat Hillary loyalist) even foresaw this crash coming.
bass4funk
Hmmm.....
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/17/politics/biden-bank-turmoil/index.html
Exhaustively.
It didn’t, never claimed more implied it.
2017: 2.1%
2018: 1.9%
2019: 2.3%
2020: 1.4%
As noted by thebalancemoney.com, a healthy inflation rate is around 2%. During Trump’s time in office, inflation hovered right around 2% through his four years as president.
Almost immediately after Biden took office, inflation began soaring.
Joe’s
2021: 7%
2022: 6.5%
https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/fact-check-biden-claims-inflation-was-already-there-when-he-got-in-office/
lincolnman
Sure you did - it's in black and white above - you said the economy "tanked" for seven years - four of those being under your former President....
2021: 5.9%
2022: 2.1%
BINGO!
Blacklabel
Ummm inflation supposed to be a low number not a high number.
wallace
Biden inherited the post-covid.
Blacklabel
Then that would mean his supposed job creation is just people going back to work post COVID.
Blacklabel
After COVID crashed the outperforming Trump economy. Fixed it for ya.
Jimizo
Like Obama had to pick up the pieces after the economy went over a cliff with Bush 2 at the wheel.
Republican presidents are a complete disaster when it comes to the economy.
Can’t be trusted.
bass4funk
Nope
It was an astounded question, not statement.
Well, it didn’t until Covid hit
and now under Joe…
2021: 7%
2022: 6.5%
BINGO!
bass4funk
And Trump had to not only clean Obama’s stagnant economy especially within the private sector, but he had to modernize our depleted and broken military.
I think you mean Democrats, California, Oregon, Chicago, Washington State, NYC, Baltimore, D.C., Detroit, no wonder people can’t flee fast and far from these disastrous hellholes.
lincolnman
Yep...
Really? Don't see any question mark here; "Says the left that have been suffering from TDS for 7 years obsessively rather than focus on the tanking economy."
Weak, pitiful excuse...
GDP?
BINGO!
Awa no Gaijin
What's that in his pocket ?
Thyme ?
They aint 4 leaf clover that's fer sure .
We don't need anymore geriatric usa presidents please
bass4funk
Absolutely not.
Yes
So the Dems don’t care about taking care of the economy? Hey, nothing new.
Naw, it’s what happened
Inflation, and Biden is doing now what? Oh, print more money.
BINGO!
lincolnman
Clearly in black and white yes...
Gotcha - you said it was a question but obviously a statement....
Trump's tanking economy based on your post above..
Just a lame excuse...
You sure it wasn't GDP?
Trump 4 year average = 1.7%
Boden 2 year average - 4%
BINGO it is!
bass4funk
No, missed your mark again.
No, that’s made a statement, and Biden is doing what exactly?
Then listen please.
He didn’t 2.1 GDP, hardly
None for Biden.
Trump 4 year average = 1.7%
Yes
Opps
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/28/politics/fact-check-biden-economic-speech-january-2023/index.html
BINGO it is!
lincolnman
You did...
It's copied directly from what you posted - what you said was a question but was obviously a statement...
Gotcha...
Look at your own contradiction...it's in black and white above...
Pathetic. Biden's 4% trounces it.
Big time oops....as in 4% makes 1.7% look pathetic.... Biden again trumps Trump.....ROFL...
CPTOMO
President Joe Biden on Friday called on Congress to allow regulators to impose tougher penalties on the executives of failed banks, including clawing back compensation and making it easier to bar them from working in the industry.
Not quite sure if Joe is the man for this, especially given his former pick to become the top banking regulator.
Comrade something or other.
Blacklabel
the first 2 years of the red hot Trump economy supposedly belonged to Obama (thanks Obama! You all cried out!)
so those first 2 years of Biden GDP belong to Trump then.
thanks 45 and 47!