The Senate Banking Committee today took off where House FinServ finished yesterday (see Client Report FSOC8), taking Treasury Secretary Geithner to task for the LIBOR case, albeit doing so with more collegiality than typical across the Capitol. Although Mr. Geithner reiterated that enforcement actions are in the works, Ranking Member Shelby (R-AL) pressed him as to whether the Department of Justice was alerted when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York first became concerned. The Senate session did not focus on big-bank structural concerns, although Mr. Geithner refuted Sandy Weill’s high-profile comments by saying that this issue was considered and rejected by Congress in Dodd-Frank. Under questioning from Sen. Corker (R-TN), Mr. Geithner opposed extension of the Transaction-Account Guarantee (TAG) at the FDIC. Secretary Geithner also expressed considerable interest in new mortgage-relief options proposed Wednesday by Sen. Merkley (D-OR), although he noted concern about the degree to which Treasury has authority under current law to implement them. This report analyzes the hearing, which came in concert with a speech from Treasury Under Secretary Miller reiterating that FSOC plans to act on recommendations in its recent report (see Client Report FSOC7) in areas such as wholesale funding, repos and money-market funds.
The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here