Top US bankers admit fault in economic woe

[joeblow]

Top US bankers admit fault in economic woes
Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:39:03 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=1 ... id=3510203



Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Chairman Phil Angelides, center, rebukes top US bankers for initiating an economic downturn.

As American bank CEOs enjoy record bonuses, top executives of the US financial institutions admit to mistakes that led to the global financial crisis.

Speaking before a congressional commission on the US financial crisis on Wednesday, heads of the nation's leading creditors acknowledged having failed Americans with their poor oversight on public debts and other risky financial transactions.

Leaders of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and the former director of Morgan Stanley testified before the commission and agreed on the banking sector's collective mistakes for creating risky economic instruments, such as second-hand mortgage securities, unsecured debts and liabilities and failing to improve risk management.

"Over the course of the crisis, we, as an industry, caused a lot of damage. Never has it been clearer how the poor business judgments we have made have affected Main Street," Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan told the panel director Phil Angelides.

"People are angry," said Angelides, quoted by ABC News. "They have a right to be. The fact is that Wall Street is enjoying record profits and bonuses in the wake of receiving trillions of dollars in government assistance while so many families are struggling to stay afloat."

The congressional probe comes amid reports indicating larger bonuses and benefits for top US bankers in 2009, as the country's six largest banks set aside $112 billion to compensate for their crash- - an amount bound to exceed the compensation levels of pre-recession period of 2007.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will also grill federal officials on banking regulations on Thursday.

GHN/MTM/MB