FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Donner 202-588-7772
June 29, 2009
‘Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’ Nominees must have Deep Knowledge, Informed Criticism of Abuses that Led to Financial Meltdown
Washington D.C. – Americans for Financial Reform — a coalition of nearly 200 state and local organizations working to reform and restore oversight, accountability and transparency to the nation’s financial system – released the following statement today as congressional leaders consider nominees for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a bipartisan panel that will be tasked with conducting a full-scale investigation into the causes of the financial meltdown in the spirit of the 1930s hearings led by Ferdinand Pecora.
David Arkush, Director of Public Citizens Congress Watch said: “The first and most crucial step to repairing our badly broken financial system is deciphering exactly who and what caused the meltdown on Wall Street. In the wake of the Great Depression, the work of what came to be known as the Pecora investigative hearings produced the facts and momentum for the major New Deal financial reforms. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Congress created to look into the fiscal crisis of today has a chance to do similarly crucial work restoring our fiscal security and soundness. But the political pressure to do only a surface investigation will be intense. The commission needs to be run by people who can resist that pressure and who have the commitment and depth of knowledge necessary to ask the right questions and draw the right conclusions.
Steve Abrecht, Executive Director of SEIU Benefit Funds said: “The body must also reflect the diversity of the American public that has been harmed by the crisis, and particularly have representation from those communities that were disproportionately singled out for unfair, deceptive, and predatory lending practices.
We urge those nominating for the commission to select aggressive seekers of truth, independent of the financial industry, willing to use their subpoena power, and knowledgeable enough to have warned us of impeding crisis despite market cheerleading from the financial establishment and their supporters.”
To speak with the Coalitions experts on this issue, call Lisa Donner at 202-588- 7772
Americans for Financial reform is a coalition of nearly 200 national, state, and local organizations working to reform and restore oversight, accountability, and transparency to the nations financial system.