Transcripts
(p1) - Chairman Patrick McHenry - (R-NC) - The FSOC may well be the least transparent Federal entity in the government. Of the 42 meetings held, no substantive description of discussions or members’ perspectives have been provided in the meeting minutes.
- In fact, two-thirds of the meetings were held in executive session, completely closed off to the public.
- For comparison’s sake, even the Federal Reserve releases fairly detailed transcripts of meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), as well as background material relied on by meeting participants and lengthy minutes that describe in detail the issues considered and the participants’ perspectives on those matters.
- 01:12:00 - Mr. HECK. - (D-WA) - Right. Thank you. --- Mr. Pinschmidt, why don’t you keep transcripts?
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. - (Deputy Assistant Secretary, Financial Stability Oversight Council, U.S. Department of the Treasury) - The meeting minutes that are produced by the Council generally serve as the official record of the—
- Mr. HECK. They are not transcripts. Why don’t you keep transcripts?
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. Congressman, the challenge for the Council is, there is a clear recognition that transparency is important, and we have taken a number of steps over the years to improve our transparency—
- Mr. HECK. Mr. Pinschmidt, why don’t you keep transcripts?
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. As I was trying to note, the obligation to transparency has to be balanced with an obligation to protect confidential, supervisory information. The nature of the Council meetings involves generally very highly sensitive, confidential company information, broader industry information—
- Mr. HECK. So does the FOMC. They keep transcripts but they retain them for a period of time. Why don’t you keep transcripts?
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. The practice has been to have the official minutes serve as the record for the Council—
- Mr. HECK. Why don’t you keep transcripts?
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. Congressman, the practice has been to have the minutes serve as the official record for Council meetings.
- Mr. HECK. So what I am hearing you say is you choose not to keep transcripts.
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. The official minutes have served in that capacity.
- Mr. HECK. No, they do not. Official minutes are not transcripts.
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. Congressman, I recognize your concerns on this, but the challenge for the Council is, the Council is charged with looking across markets, looking across institutions, discussing systemic risk. Those conversations, by their very nature, are very sensitive and confidential and—
- Mr. HECK. So do you believe they are—you literally believe they are even more sensitive than what the FOMC discusses?
- Mr. PINSCHMIDT. I really can’t comment on the—
- Mr. HECK. Well, they are not. And you should keep transcripts.
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