• (p16) - Spencer BACHUS (R-AL). Let me ask you this. During your tenure, and I think what you are saying is you are acknowledging there was a fundamental failure of the New York Department of Insurance.
• Governor Eliot SPITZER (New York). No. What I am saying is there was a multitude and a sequence of events that led to the subprime mortgage guarantees—
•  Spencer BACHUS. Doesn’t the New York Department of Insurance— they approved the bond insurers investing in the subprime securitization market which was a risky market.
• Governor SPITZER. I think that is a topic of conversation, and as I said, one of the underlying causes here was expansion of their jurisdiction from what used to be monoline businesses into the much more risky area of the securitized market.
• Mr. BACHUS. The State Department of Insurance would have to approve their  investment.
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• (p17) - Governor SPITZER - Mr. Bachus, you are involved in a finger pointing exercise. I am more than happy, sir, to get involved in that and go through with precise detail where this Administration failed at a regulatory level to stop multiple scandals.
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• (p19) - Spencer BACHUS (R-AL) -  I guess my only point is as we look at these various agencies, the credit rating agencies, the investment banks, I think the State of New York has to accept some responsibility in that they were primarily—the bond insurers—were regulated by the New York Department of Insurance.
  • Whether that was under your watch or someone else’s, I think that is a fact.

2008 0214 - GOV (House) - The State of the Bond Insurance Industry, Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)  ---  [BonkNote]