Financial Services Hearing on TARP Accountability - CEOs Testify
Watch the live webcast (starting at 10 am EST)>>
Read prepared testimony (.pdfs):
Mr. Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co.Mr. James Dimon, Chief Executive Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Mr. Robert P. Kelly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of New York Mellon
Mr. Ken Lewis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America
Mr. Ronald E. Logue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, State Street Corporation
Mr. John J. Mack, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Morgan Stanley
Mr. Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
Mr. John Stumpf, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wells Fargo & Co.
Chairman Frank's opening remarks:
"We have no option, if we are to get credit flowing again in this country, other than to work with the existing institutions...and the problem is there's a great deal of anger at the institutions, and it is impossible to get the credit system working again without doing some things that will be seen to benefit the institutions. This is the opposite of that terrible problem in warfare of collateral damage, when innocent people are injured in the course of trying to attain a military objective. One of the problems we have, gentleman, is that you are the recipients of collateral benefit, that is, in the effort to get the credit system functioning, things will be done to the benefit of the institutions over which you preside, because there is no alternative.
But you need to understand, as I think many of you do, how angry that makes people. In the interest of getting the system working again I urge you strongly to cooperate with us--not grudgingly, not doing the minimum, but understanding that there is a substantial public anger, and alleviating that public anger is essential if we're going to have the support in the country in the country to take the right steps."
Rep. Waters:
| Rep. Waters: "All of my political life I have been in disagreement with the banking and financial services community because of practices that I have believed to be not in the best interest always of the very people that they claimed to serve. I've been through the redlining fights, I've been though the fights on discriminatory practices over the years, and a lack of business lending and available capital to small and minority businesses, I'm still engaged in a fight about predatory lending. So I come to this with very strong opinions about what we need to do to regulate this industry...I would like to know if any of you, since you received TARP money, increased the amount of interest on the credit cards by sending out letters to consumers, to your credit-card holders, indicating that this was part of the contract, even though it may have been in small print?" |
Chairman Frank Asks CEOs - Why do you need bonuses?
| Rep. Frank: "Why in the world are some of the most highly-paid, talented people, who have jobs that are fun -- why do you need to be bribed to have your interests aligned with the people who are paying your salary? This is part of the problem, at your level, why do you need bonuses? Can't you just give yourselves a good salary to do the job? This notion that you need some special incentive to do the right thing troubles people." |
Rep. David Scott:
| Rep. Scott: "You gentleman represent the heart of our system, the very foundation of our system, and it is shaking at the roots. The confidence of the American people is at a low. If there's one thing you gentleman can do today, is to illustrate very firmly that what has happened in the past with 18 billion dollars of taxpayer money going out to you is an aberration - and to send a very important message that you understand this is not the Congress's money, this is not your money, this is money that's coming directly from the pockets of American taxpayers, but more importantly, it's coming from our children and grandchildren's indebtedness." |