American Banker, Thursday, July 16, 2009

The bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was just hours old on Wednesday before divisions surfaced among its members. In one corner, more conservative members appointed by Republican lawmakers argued Congress should wait for the panel’s report — due in December 2010 — before moving ahead with legislation that would revamp financial regulation. But Phil Angelides, the former California state treasurer whom Democrats tapped to chair the 10-member commission, said lawmakers should not sideline regulatory reform. “We can work in parallel,” he said in an interview. “I don’t think it serves the nation’s interest to tell everyone to hold up and do nothing. Congress and the administration can move forward on the facts as we know them today.” At the first meeting, Angelides will no doubt get an earful from Peter Wallison, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, one of four commissioners named by the GOP. “This is going to be a blame-game exercise, not a policy one,” said Karen Shaw Petrou, the managing director of Federal Financial Analytics Inc. “There are some bodies buried here that could well be exhumed. I think that would be constructive, even though it might be unpleasant.”