WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation requiring regulators to share more information with Congress and the public amid criticism that those regulators are being less than forthcoming in the wake of three large bank failures this year.
The House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy questioned witnesses on a number of discussion drafts of bills introduced after three midsized banks collapsed this year, increasing transparency requirements for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
While both the
"Rather than being responsive to Congress so that we may consider potential legislative needs, federal agencies and officials have slow-walked us," said Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., the chairman of the subcommittee. "Instead, they spent their time writing their narratives to cover their mistakes and inject politicized calls for more regulation into the public sphere. That is unacceptable, and clearly shows why we need to change emergency authorities for the Fed and FDIC and Treasury to, at least, obtain accountability and transparency."
Some witnesses also pressed lawmakers to push regulators for more clarity around what happened as the FDIC attempted to sell off both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature, and how regulators arrived at the decision to declare a systemic risk exception for those banks rather than find a buyer for them in the weekend between Silicon Valley Bank's failure and the announcement that the federal government would guarantee the two banks' deposits.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, specifically asked Jonathan Gould, a partner at Jones Day and former official at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, whether the FDIC could have gotten a better deal for Silicon Valley Bank or Signature Bank had it moved faster.
"During the auctions of SVB and Signature, the FDIC did not move fast enough to find a viable buyer, letting multiple days pass while there were reports of several offers for these banks until a bid was approved," Williams said.
Gould said that there is not enough public information to answer those questions.
"We don't have all the facts, or at least as I sit here, I don't have the facts of what actually occurred over that weekend," Gould said. "But you are not similarly limited, you can obtain from the FDIC the facts since you are their overseer."
Similarly, Gould later answered a query from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., on whether a criticism in the Fed's report on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank was accurate to lay some of the blame on the culture created by former Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles.
"It's impossible to tell since we don't have the interview notes," Gould said.
While Democratic lawmakers in the subcommittee hearing didn't try to pin down witnesses on missing pieces of information from the Fed or the FDIC reports, it could be a small area of bipartisan agreements. At least one progressive Democrat, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has
