- “No one is above the law – and strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent future mismanagement.”
- Biden pointed out that the law limited his power to hold leaders accountable and asked Congress to intervene.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley on March 14, 2023 in Monterey Park, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
President Joe Biden called on Congress to give regulators more power to recover wages and punish executives at troubled banks “whose mismanagement contributed to the failure of their institutions.”
“No one is above the law — and strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent future mismanagement,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “When banks fail due to mismanagement and excessive risk-taking, it should be easier for regulators to recover compensation from executives, impose civil penalties, and ban executives from working in the banking industry again.”
Biden pointed out that the law limited his power to hold leaders accountable and asked Congress to intervene.
“Congress must take action to impose tougher penalties on top bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to the collapse of their institutions,” Biden said.
The nation’s top bank regulators announced Sunday that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve will fully cover deposits at both failed banks, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, relying on Wall Street and big financial institutions — not taxpayers — to pay. . Signature Bank in New York, which closed Sunday amid fears of systemic contagion similar to SVB, had been a popular source of funding for cryptocurrency companies.
The president emphasized that the actions taken over the weekend were necessary to prevent further economic crises, but did not use taxpayers’ money.
“Our banking system is more resilient and more stable today because of the actions we took,” Biden said. “On Monday morning, I told Americans and American businesses that they should be confident that their deposits will be there if and when they need them. That remains the case.”