ICBA: Hold Wall Street Fraudsters Personally Accountable

Camden R. Fine, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), released this statement following the recent meeting between JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder amid continued reports of misconduct on Wall Street. “While JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street firms negotiate the terms of their penalties for misconduct and violations of the law, ICBA and the nation’s community bankers urge financial regulators and the Justice Department to ensure megabank officials are held to the same personal accountability as community bankers. “The seemingly endless number of fines and penalties that regulators continue to impose on the nation’s largest financial institutions reflects serious and harmful behavior from Wall Street to Canary Wharf. This misconduct is manifest in the fraudulent packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities, a loss funded in part with federally insured deposits, and collusion to rig LIBOR interest rates. “Nevertheless, financial penalties that can be paid in full out of these megabanks’ quarterly profits are not enough to deter wrongdoing and minimize the threats these institutions pose to our nation. Unlike community bankers, who are held publicly and personally accountable by their regulators when things go wrong, not one senior Wall Street executive or board member has been held personally responsible for the 2008-10 financial collapse and the repeated scandals that have followed. “To truly combat Wall Street’s excessively risky and reckless behavior, regulators and the Justice Department must bring financial bad actors to justice.”