Sanford Weill, former chairman and CEO of Citigroup, appeared on CNBC Wednesday.
By Roland Jones, NBC News
Sandy Weill, the former Citigroup chairman and CEO credited with building the bank into a financial superpower, now says big banks should be split up.
In a wide-ranging CNBC interview, Weill?suggested investment banks should be split from banks that provide retail and commercial banking services.
That?s an unusual outlook from Weill, who?pushed the government to overturn the Glass-Steagall law that requires deposit-taking institutions to separate from risky investment banks.
The law was put in place after the 1929 stock market crash.
Citigroup became one of the nation?s problems during the financial crisis -- a poster-child for ?too big to fail? with the government spending $45 billion trying to keep it afloat.
?Have banks do something that?s not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that?s not going to be too big to fail,? Weill told CNBC.
He called for a ?creative? banking system that can ?attract the best and brightest? talent.
?I want to see the United States be leader,? Weill said. ?I really believe in our country, and we are not going to be a leader if we continue to trash our institutions.?
Weill said he came to his view about banks after seeing the public, regulators and politicians turn against the banking industry.
The world hates bankers right now, he said.
?There is such a feeling among people, among regulators, among the political system all over the world against the banking system, and I don't think that is going to change so soon,? Weill said.
Sheila Bair, the former chair of the FDIC, said Weill?s reason for breaking up the banks is not the correct approach to the problem.
?Banks are unpopular now because they?ve done a lot of dumb things,? she told CNBC. There?s a perception that banks are managed for short-term profit and don?t care about long-term customer relations, she added.
?We had to bail out these financial institutions,? Bair continued. ?Not all of them, but Citigroup is top of the list.?
Click here to check Citigroup?s share price.
ray charles cheney heart transplant weather san diego unitarian new black panther party lost in space elizabeth banks
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.