Barney Frank
- 1981-2013 - US House (D-MA)
- "barney frank" "optional federal charter" "2008" "Press Conference" "march 5"
- 2009 1020? - GOV (House) - "Ideological differences" / most changes with insurance section
- GOV - NAIC
- 2007 0613 - GOV (House) - Improving Federal Consumer Protection in Financial Services. (CSPAN) Financial Services Consumer Protection, Barney Frank (D-MA)
- 2006 - Book - Frank Talk: The Wit and Wisdom of Barney Frank
- 2008 1020 - NCOIL to GOV (Barney Frank - House - (D-MA) - 2p
- As leaders of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), we write to applaud your review and evaluation of financial service regulations and to offer our thoughts on why any proposed reforms should not impede strong, state-based insurance regulation.
- 2015 1203 - Politico - Yes, I Took Bank Money. And It Made Me a Better Regulator. The liberal case for getting over our obsession with purity tests, by Barney Frank - [link]
- 2023 0313 - NY Post - Barney Frank under fire over role on board of doomed Signature Bank, By Lydia Moynihan - [link]
- And, with AIG—and you go about the causes—the Federal Reserve—Mr. Bernanke came to us in September of 2008 and said, ‘‘I have just given $85 billion to AIG.’’
- We have changed the law.
- He couldn’t do that again because they weren’t solvent.
- And, therefore, he could not have done that under our current bill.
-- Barney Frank (D-MA)
2014 0723 - GOV (House-CFS) - Assessing the Impact of the Dodd–Frank Act Four Years Later - [PDF-169p, VIDEO-CSPAN]
- 2009 1009 - GOV (House) - Title-? - (CSPAN) - Financial Services Legislation Markup
- [PDF-?, VIDEO-CSPAN]
- 03:44 - Barney Frank - There have been a lot of Conversation with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the Agents.
- 14:00 - Barney Frank - Consumer Protection / Safety and Soundness, Solvency
- 15:00- Scott Garrett - Insurance Companies -
- House - Financial Services Committee
- (p72) - Barney Frank (D-MA) - I will again repeat what I said.
- I said a comment to the FSOC, saying, as a general principle that I don’t think asset managers or insurance companies that just sell insurance, as it is traditionally defined, are systemically important.
- They don’t have the leverage.
- Their failure isn’t going to have that systemic reverberatory effect.
- On the other hand, you had AIG, which was an insurance company, and the insurance business was so good they made more money literally than they knew what to do with.
- And, with AIG—and you go about the causes—the Federal Reserve—Mr. Bernanke came to us in September of 2008 and said, ‘‘I have just given $85 billion to AIG.’’
- We have changed the law.
- He couldn’t do that again because they weren’t solvent.
- And, therefore, he could not have done that under our current bill.
- But a week later they were telling us that they needed so much for the TARP, and they included another $85 billion for AIG.
- We said, ‘‘You already told us that.’’
- They said, ‘‘No. That is an additional $85 billion for AIG.’’
- AIG not only didn’t have the money to pay off, they had no idea how much they owed.
- But that is my view on that.
- Asset managers’ insurance, as a general rule, no, but there might be activities they engage in that say yes.
- I said a comment to the FSOC, saying, as a general principle that I don’t think asset managers or insurance companies that just sell insurance, as it is traditionally defined, are systemically important.
2014 0723 - GOV (House-CFS) - Assessing the Impact of the Dodd–Frank Act Four Years Later - [PDF-169p, VIDEO-CSPAN]
- And we were told that it was the intention of the Federal Reserve, with the full support of the Administration, to make $80 billion available for the insurance company AIG.
-- Barney Frank (D-MA)
2009 0210 - GOV (House) - Extraordinary Efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank to Provide Liquidity in Current Financial Crisis - [PDF-123p, VIDEO-archive.org]
- 2007 0613 - GOV (House) - Improving Federal Consumer Protection in Financial Services. (CSPAN) Financial Services Consumer Protection, Barney Frank (D-MA)
- [PDF- 257p, VIDEO-CSPAN]
- (p2) - Barney Frank (D-MA) - There is a reason why consumer protection has been more often done at the State level; State regulators are more likely to be elected officials than Federal regulators—State attorneys general, State insurance commissioners, and other State officials.
- (p2) - Barney Frank (D-MA) - And I will tell you this: If you ask me, where is the greater intellectual stimulation, where do I think any individual energy is that I express, where will I get greater results, it is probably in making broad national policy.
- But cumulatively dealing with these individual consumer complaints is very, very important for two reasons: first, for the injustice done to individuals; and second, if there is no consumer protection mechanism in the society, things will go off track, and there could become this bias against consumers.
- Now it is not that I believe that the banks and other institutions that are regulated are rapacious or greedy beyond the norm that we are supposed to have in a capitalist system. It is just that we all make mistakes, and even more of a problem, we don’t like to admit our mistakes; we like to cover them up, we like to deny that we made them, and we like to blame other people for them. Those are human traits. I do not impute them to the banks; I impute them to human beings.
- Consumer protection exists to be something of a corrective force, and here’s the problem: I do not think that the Federal agencies as currently and historically constituted, given their mission, are at present adequately staffed or oriented or legally structured to provide consumer protection.
- (p3) - Barney Frank (D-MA) - I was told by one of the regulators, well, we can do regulation of consumer protections under our power to enforce safety and soundness on the banks, the argument being that a bank that does not treat consumers well can be called to account because it is jeopardizing its safety and soundness. I wish.
- In fact, done cleverly enough, being unfair to consumers can contribute to the safety and soundness of a bank.
- Rep. Frank has an understanding and appreciation of the insurance industry,” said Willem Rijksen, vice president of public affairs at American Insurance Association.
- And following the 2007-2009 financial crisis, Rijksen added, “AIA worked with Rep. Frank, during his tenure as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to ensure that the Dodd-Frank Act correctly recognized that insurers do not pose a systemic risk and that insurers maintain a low-risk business model,”