Bank Executives Pleased With Tone Of Meeting With Obama
27 März 2009 - 8:36PM
Dow Jones News
Chief executives of the nation's biggest financial institutions
emerged from a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama pledging to
cooperate with the administration's effort to steer the economy out
of its mess.
Executives said the tone of the more-than-90-minute session was
cordial, with little discussion of the the controversy over
executive compensation.
"We're just in this together. There's still some hard work to
do, but a pleasant meeting," said Bank of America Corp. (BAC) CEO
Ken Lewis.
The CEOs agreed they had to make clear that they understood the
public's concern over taxpayer-funded bailouts, according Freddie
Mac (FRE) CEO John Koskinen. The executives, however, said
government programs need firm rules that do not change with the
political winds.
"Whatever the rules are going to be, we need to know them sooner
rather than later because we are prepared to play by the new
requirements but we need to know what they're going to be," he
said.
The bankers said they support the administration's proposal to
cleanse their balance sheets of toxic assets, though they are
waiting for more specifics of the plan.
"We don't know all the details ... but we think it's a really
encouraging first step to get the plan out there," said Robert
Kelly, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK). "We need to hear
the details. I think there's going to be a lot of interest in
it."
Richard Davis, CEO of U.S. Bancorp (USB), said a proposal to tax
at firms that accept government aid wasn't discussed at the
meeting, despite widespread public outrage - and administration
rhetoric - over the bonuses doled out to executives at American
International Group Inc. (AIG).
"We understand there have been some optics that have been very
negative. We apologize for that because it's not something that
this industry supports or wants," Davis said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama was "very pleased"
with the meeting and hopes to keep the lines of communications open
with Wall Street.
"He had no agenda beyond working to get a solution, the right
solution for our financial system, and to get it stabilized and
working again for the American people," Gibbs said.
The thrust of the president's message to the bank executives,
Koskinen said, was that the government and the financial industry
needed to work together to steer the economy to recovery.
"No one in that room gave any indication at all that they were
anything other than enthusiastic about supporting the president and
this program," Koskinen said.
Bank of America's Lewis, when asked if his firm planned to
return government funds it received under the Troubled Asset Relief
Program, said it was premature to make that decision because banks
are still undergoing government-administered stress tests.
The meeting included JP Morgan Chase (CCF) CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank
of America CEO Ken Lewis, American Express Corp. (AXP) CEO Ken
Chenault, Freddie Mac CEO John Koskinen, State Street Corp. (STT)
CEO Ronald Logue, BONY-Mellon CEO Robert Kelly, Northern Trust CEO
Rick Waddell, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC)CEO James
Rohr, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan
Stanley (MS) CEO John Mack, Citigroup Inc. (C)CEO Vikram Pandit,
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) CEO John Stumpf, and USBancorp (USB)
CEO Richard Davis.
Cam Fine of the Independent Community Bankers and Edward
Yingling of the American Bankers Association also attended the
session.
-By Henry J. Pulizzi and Jessica Holzer, Dow Jones Newswires;
202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com