Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Hapless Bank Regulators At First Hearing (VIDEO) - HuffPo [View all]

Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Hapless Bank Regulators At First Hearing (VIDEO)
Ryan Grim - HufPo
Posted: 02/14/2013 5:14 pm EST | Updated: 02/14/2013 5:35 pm EST



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WASHINGTON -- Bank regulators got a sense Thursday of how their lives will be slightly different now that Elizabeth Warren sits on a Senate committee overseeing their agencies. At her first Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Warren questioned top regulators from the alphabet soup that is the nation's financial regulatory structure: the FDIC, SEC, OCC, CFPB, CFTC, Fed and Treasury.

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts had a straightforward question for them: When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial? It was a harder question than it seemed.



Warner turned to Elisse Walter, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who said that the agency weighs how much it can extract from a bank without taking it to court against the cost of going to trial.

"I appreciate that. That's what everybody does," said Warren, a former Harvard law professor. "Can you identify the last time when you took the Wall Street banks to trial?"

"I will have to get back to you with specific information," Walter said as the audience tittered.

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More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/elizabeth-warren-bank-regulators_n_2688998.html