Biden says failed banks’ executives should be fined, banned, stripped of compensation

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday called on Congress to give regulators greater power over the banking sector, including leveraging higher fines, clawing back funds and barring officials from failed banks, according to a statement released by the White House.

“No one is above the law,” Biden said in the statement, “and strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent mismanagement in the future.”

The current law “limits the administration’s authority to hold executives responsible,” he said.

Specifically, Biden is asking Congress to give the Federal Depository Insurance Corp. greater authority to claw back compensation, “including gains from stock sales – from executives at failed banks like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank,” the White House said in a second statement.

The president is also asking Congress to give the FDIC more authority to ban bank executives from the industry when their banks go into receivership, and fine bank managers whose banks fail.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Costas Pitas; writing by Susan Heavey and Heather Timmons; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)