Bank CEOs outline pandemic support; senators split on issues
WASHINGTON (AP) — The CEOs of the six biggest U.S. banks went before Congress Wednesday, eager to lay out their support for struggling consumers and small businesses hard hit by the pandemic.
But lawmakers focused more keenly in a Senate hearing on the contentious social and political issues dividing the country.
Climate change, voting rights and racial inequity animated the debate and questioning of the executives in a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. Democrats demanded the Wall Street powerhouses do more to help struggling minority communities. Republicans warned against promoting social activism through banking practices.
“Profits have gone up, stock prices have soared, your own compensation is stratospheric — but workers get a smaller and smaller share of the wealth they create and they’re working harder than ever,” Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the committee chairman, told the CEOs. “We have a racial wealth and income gap that has barely budged since we passed the Civil Rights Act. Prove to us that you are going to use your positions to ... make our economy work for everyone — not just CEOs and the wealthy.”
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the panel’s senior Republican, said the banking industry showed remarkable resilience during the pandemic recession as he mounted a robust defense of capitalism. Toomey echoed an idea with growing cultural currency among conservatives, voicing concern about increased pressure on banks “to embrace wokeism” and promote social activism through their policies.
The chief executives of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs appeared via video for the hearing by the Senate panel, which will be followed by a House committee session on Thursday.
The CEOs appeared as...