Barney Frank bristles at FDIC
Former fiery Bay State Congressman Barney Frank — the co-author of the Dodd-Frank landmark banking bill — reportedly tried to take some teeth out of the law.
As a board member of Signature Bank, Frank sought to soften DoddFrank regs that former President Donald Trump actually accomplished in 2018 — a move Frank denied.
Signature Bank has been taken over by the FDIC, the federal agency that insures bank deposits until the bank can be sold. The bank was closed just a day after the government did the same for Silicon Valley Bank.
Frank — who has earned more than $2.4 million in compensation from Signature Bank since 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal — said Signature Bank will sell.
“I believe they’re going to get a very good price,” Frank told the Associated
Press, “proof that it was not a bank problem.”
Frank, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1981 until 2013, co-authored the Dodd-Frank act that boosted government oversight of banks following the 2008 financial crisis.
Signature’s takeover came two days after regulators seized Californiabased SVB. Both followed a rush of withdrawals from the banks, which catered to technology businesses.
The bank said it was the first FDIC-insured bank to launch a blockchain-based digital payments platform.
Frank said Monday that he believes the state officials behind the action were trying to make an example of Signature Bank in a takeover that he said was the wrong move. Despite a wave of withdrawals, the bank’s situation was under control before regulators swooped in, he said.
“This was just a way to tell people, ‘We don’t want you dealing with crypto,’” Frank said in an interview with AP.