FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      
DATE: March 13, 2012 

CONTACT: John Carey at 202-466-1854
john@ourfinancialsecurity.org          

AFR Statement on Resignation of Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith

Washington, DC – Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 national and state organizations working together for strong Wall Street reform, issued the following statement today:

The resignation of Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith and the striking op-ed he wrote in today’s NY Times  reveal once again that the problems laid bare in the 2010 Congressional hearings on proprietary trading  remain pervasive at our largest banks. Congress passed the Volcker Rule as a specific response to these issues. Indeed, the Volcker Rule – which reorients banking culture to serving customers by banning proprietary trading and the conflicts of interest it creates – is aimed at precisely the problems Mr. Smith describes at Goldman Sachs.

But the Volcker Rule has not yet been implemented. Regulators have drafted a proposed rule, one that needs to be strengthened before it becomes final in order to create all the cultural and substantive changes that are so desperately needed at our largest banks.  But financial industry lobbyists are working to undermine the proposal, advocating a tidal wave of changes to the proposed rule that would amount to an effective repeal of the Volcker Rule itself. It is crucial that regulators are not intimidated  or overwhelmed by this well-funded effort, but instead move ahead to implement the Volcker Rule that Congress intended – a strong rule that truly changes the toxic culture of proprietary trading. Mr. Smith’s statement today, along with the mountains of evidence from the financial crisis, demonstrates yet again how much we need a Volcker Rule that works.

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