Some background, live video of the hearings and prepared statements from the guilty.
##
Essential Dick Fuld & Lehman background:
##
- Text below was written by C-Span
Former Wachovia executive Robert Steel told a panel investigating the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis that he was directed by U.S. bank regulator Sheila Bair to sell Wachovia. Later, ex. Lehman CEO will blame financial regulators for being denied government bailout aid.
Steel told a 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) panel this morning that in 2008 he was ordered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to sell his company to avoid a banking system collapse. In testimony to the committee, Steel said that Wachovia didn’t need government support if negotiations with Citigroup continued but “Chairman Bair directed Wachovia to commence negotiations with Citigroup” or he was told the “FDIC was prepared to exercise its powers to effect an open bank assisted transaction.”
The commission is meeting today to hear from Steel, Former Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Dick Fuld and government regulators on how the 2008 banking bailout deal was accomplished. The two-day hearing also looks into the concept of "too big to fail" -- the idea that some banking businesses are so important to the nation, that it would be disastrous if they were allowed to fail.
Former Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Dick Fuld will appear later today and is expected to blame government regulators for not providing bailout aid when "support [was] given to each of its competitors and other nonfinancial firms." Fuld will also state that the same regulators relied on “flawed information” when assessing Lehman's financial state, which he claims ultimately led the firm's "forced" bankruptcy.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair are scheduled to testify tomorrow.
