WSJ UPDATE: Obama To Meet Friday With Top Bank CEOs
March 24 2009 - 6:44PM
Dow Jones News
President Barack Obama plans to meet Friday with about a dozen
of the U.S.'s top banking chiefs in an unusual gathering designed
to discuss the administration's plans to shore up the financial
sector. Attendees are expected to include Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
(GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. and
Citigroup Inc. (C). The meeting comes as relations between
Washington and Wall Street are frayed following last week's furor
over bonuses paid to American International Group Inc. (AIG)
employees.
At the same time, the administration is relying heavily on
private investors and Wall Street banks to implement its various
rescue programs and needs to repair its relationship.
(This story and related background material will be available on
The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)
Several bank chief executives have openly criticized the White
House's handling of the financial crisis, especially its public
announcement of "stress tests," designed to measure banks'
financial health, that led to a sharp sell off in financial
stocks.
Top bank executives often come to Washington but rarely meet
privately en masse with top government officials. It is also
unusual for the White House to hold such meetings, which are
usually handled by the Treasury or Federal Reserve.
Last fall, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson summoned many
of the same top bank executives to Washington and pressured them to
allow the government to inject capital into their companies. The
meeting Friday is expected to be much less contentious,
representing instead an effort by Mr. Obama and his top aides to
explain efforts he recently announced to stabilize the banking
industry.
Many of the executives will arrive Thursday for a meeting of the
Financial Services Roundtable, an industry trade group that
represents the largest financial-services companies. The group
plans to meet privately with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Thursday night.
Separately, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon met Tuesday with
executives from 13 global banks as part of preparations for the
Group-of-20 summit in London April 2. A spokesman for the U.K.
Treasury said "there was clear agreement about the importance of
supporting the global economy, restoring lending by dealing head-on
with troubled assets and rejecting protectionism."
Executives meeting with Mr. Brown came from banks including
Banco Santander SA (STD), Barclays PLC (BCS), Deutsche Bank AG
(DB), Goldman Sachs and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.
(MTU).
(Ragnhild Kjetland contributed to this story)