- GOP Sen. Pat Toomey said he wants to hear bankers defend stock buybacks and assure the GOP that political issues aren’t influencing lending.
- “One of the things I’m hoping for, and I will urge these guys to do, is stand up and defend capitalism,” he told “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.
- CEOs including JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Wells Fargo’s Charles Scharf, Citi’s Jane Fraser and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon begin two days of hearings on Capitol Hill.
Tom Franck from CNBC writes:
“The top Republican senator in charge of overseeing Wall Street regulation is hoping the chief executives of the nation’s largest lenders will “defend capitalism” when they appear before his committee.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said that he wants to hear bankers defend the practice of stock buybacks and assure the GOP that political and social issues aren’t influencing which businesses and individuals the lenders choose to underwrite.
“One of the things I’m hoping for, and I will urge these guys to do, is stand up and defend capitalism,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday morning. “I hope they will defend the system that has created more opportunity and prosperity than any other system.”
Banks need to “avoid the sort of appeasement of this whole movement that I see, in some cases, where I think political agendas are starting to creep into banking policy,” he added.
Toomey’s remarks came hours before Wall Street’s top brass is scheduled to testify before Congress.
CEOs including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Wells Fargo’s Charles Scharf, Citi’s Jane Fraser and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon will kick off two days of hearings before the Senate Banking Committee, where Toomey is the ranking member.
The bank executives are likely to face gripes from both sides of the political aisle, with Democrats hoping to address racial differences in lending and Republicans keen to keep banks out of social and political commentary…”
See full story here.
Categories: Business, Government, Politics
Economic Left 
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