JPMorgan Chase recently
reached yet another settlement with the U.S. government -- a $13 billion deal
with the Department of Justice for peddling deceptive mortgages.
The
banking giant broke the law, recklessly gambled with our economy, and had to pay
a record government settlement. Guess what happened next? You guessed right:
JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon just got a 74% raise yesterday.
The New York
Times speculates that Dimon got the raise because of his "active role" in
negotiating government settlements last year. And as Dimon put it himself, it
could have been a lot worse if JPMorgan had been forced to go all the way to a
trial instead of just settling.
So here's my question: If JPMorgan is so happy
with their settlements that they are rewarding their CEO with a big raise, do
you really think the federal bank regulators were tough
enough?
There are a lot of steps we can take to push the
regulators to do their jobs and hold financial institutions fully accountable
when they break the law, and I think a good starting place would be by enacting
the Truth in Settlements Act.
This is the bill I recently introduced
with Senator Coburn that would require accessible, detailed disclosures about
settlement agreements so the public can hold regulators accountable -- no more
hiding out behind closed doors and keeping the details secret.
Sign up now to show your support for the Truth in
Settlements Act.
When I question federal regulators in
Banking Committee hearings, they insist that they don't need to take big banks
to trial when they break the law. They stand by their claim that settlement
agreements are tough enough.
But if a settlement is so weak that Wall
Street is celebrating with pay raises, it's not a good deal for the American
people.
This week Jamie Dimon admitted that the big banks don't
want to go to trial, so now there's no doubt: If the regulators were willing to
go all the way to a trial, even once in a while, they would have a lot more
leverage in the settlement negotiations. And maybe they could get better deals
on behalf of consumers and taxpayers.
This is simple: Bankers on Wall
Street need to be held accountable when they break the law, and regulators in
Washington need to be held accountable when they enforce the
law.
So sign up now to show your support for the Truth in
Settlements Act. It's time for real transparency and
accountability.
Thank you for being a part of
this,
Elizabeth
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