US president calls on Congress to impose more durable penalties on senior officers of banks that fail as a result of mismanagement.
Washington, DC – United States President Joe Biden has known as on Congress to tighten rules to allow “accountability” for executives of failed banks which have been rescued by the federal government.
In an announcement on Friday, Biden mentioned leaders of banks that collapse “as a result of mismanagement and extreme danger taking” ought to face fines and bans from working within the business.
He made the feedback after two US monetary establishments — Silicon Valley Financial institution (SVB) and Signature Financial institution — went bust, elevating fears of a broader financial fallout much like the 2008 monetary disaster,
The Biden administration moved shortly to answer the disaster, seizing the 2 banks and guaranteeing the cash of all depositors at each banks, even those that had been uninsured.
On Friday, Biden reiterated his assurances that the US banking system is “resilient and steady”, including that he’s “dedicated to accountability for these chargeable for this mess”.
“When banks fail as a result of mismanagement and extreme danger taking, it ought to be simpler for regulators to claw again compensation from executives, to impose civil penalties and to ban executives from working within the banking business once more,” Biden mentioned in an announcement.
“Congress should act to impose more durable penalties for senior financial institution executives whose mismanagement contributed to their establishments failing,” he mentioned.
When Silicon Valley and Signature Banks collapsed, we took steps to stabilize the banking system for gratis to the taxpayer, defending jobs and small companies.
Now, Congress should do extra to carry senior financial institution executives accountable. pic.twitter.com/BupUZbQ5ul
— President Biden (@POTUS) Mar 17, 2023
The White Home known as on legislators to decrease the bar required for banning executives from the banking business.
“The president believes that for those who’re chargeable for the failure of 1 financial institution, you should not be capable to simply flip round and lead one other,” a White Home truth sheet mentioned.
Congress has the authority to impose rules on the banking business. Two years after the 2008 meltdown, US lawmakers handed a sweeping Wall Road reform legislation. However a few of its rules had been rolled again in 2018 with bipartisan help.
SVB was the sixteenth largest financial institution within the US when it collapsed on the finish of final week. Specialised in lending to know-how start-ups and the enterprise capitalists who finance them, it had invested a lot of its cash in US authorities bonds, whose worth fell as rates of interest rose,
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive Democrat who has been outspoken towards deregulations within the banking sector, backed Biden’s name for accountability.
“President Biden is rightfully combating to carry financial institution executives accountable for his or her failures,” Warren wrote on Twitter.
“We have to claw again each penny of their unjust pay and bonuses, impose actual penalties, and guarantee these executives by no means work within the banking business once more,” she mentioned. “Congress should step up.”
Some Republicans have prompt that SVB’s failure was as a result of what they painting because the financial institution’s emphasis on liberal cultural points, together with variety.
“No bailouts for SVB (Silicon Valley Financial institution),” Republican Congressman Andy Biggs wrote on Twitter.
“Its assets mustn’t have been blown on woke/DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] initiatives as an alternative of precise monetary administration,” he posted. “It additionally does not assist that Biden’s extreme spending is creating rate of interest chaos.”
