White House adviser Elizabeth Warren has been busy holding
several meetings, lunches and phone calls with top financial
industry executives, the very officials who probably have the most
angst about the consumer protection agency she is charged with
setting up.
The Treasury Department Wednesday finally revealed details of
Warren's schedule from Sept. 20 to Nov. 2. And it shows that
Warren, a Harvard law professor and long-time banking industry
critic, has been very open to meeting with the nation's top bankers
as she works to launch the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau.
According to the document, she has met with the heads of
Citibank, U.S. Bancorp (USB), T.D. Bank, and J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. (JPM), among others.
Here are some specifics:
She had breakfast in late September with Richard Davis, the
chief executive of U.S. Bancorp at Old Ebbitt Grill, a popular
Washington restaurant near the White House and Treasury
Department.
Also in late September, she held a phone call with American
Express Co. (AXP) Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault. She also met
with Chenault in mid-October, according to Warren's calendar, which
notes that Chenault specifically flew to Washington just to meet
with her.
On Sept., Warren met with with TD Bank Financial Group President
and Chief Executive Officer Edmund Clark on Capitol Hill.
Early in October, Warren met with UBS Group Americas Chairman
and Chief Executive Robert Wolf. She met with Citigroup Inc. (C)
Chief Executive Vikram Pandit in New York on Oct 4. A couple of
days later, she had an afternoon meeting with HSBC North America
Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Niall Booker on Oct. 6.
Also in October, Warren met with J.P. Morgan Chief Executive
Jamie Dimon.
In October, she talked with officials from Deutsche Bank AG (DB)
and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) as well as the Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Discover Financial Services (DFS) David
Nelms.
Later in October, she met with Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
President and Chief Executive John Stumpf and in early November,
she met with Morgan Stanley (MS) Executive Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer Ruth Porat.
Warren has also been in contact with financial industry trade
groups. She has spoken with American Bankers Association President
Ed Yingling, met and eaten with Financial Services Roundtable
President Steve Bartlett, met with Securities Industry and
Financial Markets Association President Tim Ryan and eaten in the
Treasury dining room with Rob Nichols, who heads a financial policy
organization comprising the chief executives of more than a dozen
large financial firms.
Her schedule also makes clear that Warren has been in contact
with groups that don't represent banks and financial firms but
still could be affected by the new bureau's rules and policies. For
instance, Warren has met twice with the National Retail
Federation's General Counsel Mallory Duncan.
The group is particularly interested in interchange fees and
other financial rules that could affect merchants. A battle had
heated up earlier this year during congressional debate on the
financial overhaul known as the Dodd-Frank Act. Banks charge
merchants fees each time a debit card is swiped, but merchants have
fought to pay lower fees to banks, while financial firms argue that
fee limits will hurt profits and revenues. The Federal Reserve is
expected to propose new rules limiting interchange fees as early as
December.
Warren, who has said she would like to find ways to help
struggling small, community banks, also met with several
representatives of community bankers. She has spoken to officials
with the Community Bankers Association and the Independent
Community Bankers of America.
Representatives of credit unions, which are also likely to be
affected by the bureau's new rules, have also been in touch with
Warren. Warren has met with Daniel Mica, president and chief
executive of the Credit Union National Association, and Fred
Becker, president and chief executive of the National Association
of Federal Credit Unions.
Consumer advocates held talks with Warren as well, including
Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America.
As an important new member of the Obama administration, Warren
has also held various meetings with other senior White House and
Treasury advisers, such as Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod, and
Austan Goolsbee.
She also has been in touch with other regulators such as Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair and Securities and
Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro. She spoke with Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Sept. 30, just a little over a
week after being appointed.
Warren's schedule also includes several talks with attorneys
general, representing states such as Texas, Massachusetts, Ohio and
Illinois. Warren has said that state attorneys general will likely
take the lead in dealing with complaints that banks have mishandled
foreclosure paperwork, signing off on foreclosure documents without
reading them
Meanwhile, key U.S. lawmakers made it onto her schedule as well,
including Rep. Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican who is a key
critic of the bureau and is expected to gain even greater power in
the Republican-controlled House of Representatives next year. She's
also spoken with Richard Shelby, who has also spoken critically of
the bureau.
In addition, she has spoken to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as well as key Reps. Louise
Slaughter (D., N.Y.), Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), Barney Frank (D.,
Mass.), Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) and key Sens. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.),
Olympia Snowe (R., Maine), Tim Johnson (D., S.D.) and Richard
Durbin (D., Ill.), to name a few.
-By Maya Jackson Randall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6687,
maya.jackson-randall@dowjones.com
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