Eight Bailout CEOs Tell Congress Where The Money Went
Summoned to Capitol Hill by furious lawmakers, Bank of America’s Ken Lewis, Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase faced the wrath of Congress on Feb. 11 over how their firms have spent the first $350 billion of taxpayers’ money under the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP).
CEOs from eight of the nation’s biggest banks arrived early Wednesday morning to answer questions from the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. This time, unlike what occurred in November 2008 when CEOs of the Big Three auto companies came to Washington to request taxpayer bailout money in private jets, the bank CEOs arrived via public transportation.
The CEOs presented their testimony in alphabetical order. All of the statements are posted on the House Financial Services Committee Web site. As expected, the executives defended their companies’ use of the TARP funds.
The TARP Accountability: Use of Federal Assistance by the First TARP Recipients meeting is the first of what some say will be regular examinations held by Congress as it moves to increase federal oversight of Wall Street.
And that oversight couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. Taxpayers and investors are justifiably up in arms over how financial institutions are reaping the benefits of the government’s massive multibillion bailout plan, but producing little in return. Instead of improving the state of the credit market, banks apparently spent the money on corporate bonuses, press junkets and, in the case of Merrill Lynch’s John Thain, on a $1.4 million office redecorating project.
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