Phony Frank?
Did you ever hear a joke that was funny at first but eventually wore out its welcome?
The political equivalent was on display last week when Reps. Barney Frank and Spencer Bachus got into a public spat over technical corrections to the Dodd-Frank Act.
The brouhaha started Wednesday when Frank, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, issued a press release contesting a Congressional Quarterly article — which cited Chairman Bachus as the source — that said Frank and Bachus were in discussions to amend the regulatory reform law.
"I would like to investigate the individual who is apparently impersonating me in the Capitol and has fooled Spencer Bachus into thinking he has been dealing with me," Frank said. "I've read in the media that Chairman Bachus and I were discussing technical fixes to the financial reform law, including to a provision regarding rating agencies. In fact, several weeks ago I had one conversation with him about changes I would like to make to the provision on interchange fees. I am not aware of any other conversations going on, either about the rating agency provisions in the law or any other section."
The reference to an impersonator was a joke, but Bachus keyed on it in his response, quoting Frank last year saying a corrections bill was necessary.
"There certainly does need to be an investigation into who is impersonating Barney Frank, because someone who looks and sounds exactly like him said on June 29, 2010, and this is verbatim: 'I believe we will need a technical corrections bill that goes beyond minor things. … I am committed to a bill subsequent to this on things that are not terribly controversial. And I think once we have the bill done, there becomes a mutual interest in technical corrections and clarifications which we would follow up on,' " Bachus said in a press release.
The Alabama Republican followed up a day later with video from the conference committee last year carrying the subject line, "Video of Apparent Barney Frank Impersonator Surfaces!"
It didn't stop there. In a press release issued Thursday, Frank offered "A Journalist's Guide to Bachus' Claims About the Financial Reform bill." The Massachusetts Democrat acknowledged that he had, in fact, been in favor of tweaks to Dodd-Frank, but he said most of the changes he wanted had already been made. Referencing the CQ article, Frank said that Bachus had personally denied to him making the comments about working together on a bill, though Frank said he now believes the article quoted Bachus accurately.
"This year, I have had exactly one conversation with Mr. Bachus about changes in the financial reform bill, specifically the interchange fee provision," Frank said. "Thus, his statement that I now believe he did make although he denied to me that he did — that we are currently engaged in conversations about changes — is simply wrong. As to his 'refutation of my statement,' I acknowledged that I did say in June of 2010 and again in September of 2010 that changes in the bill were desirable, and I note, as I said, that we have already made two changes last year, and that I favor a third with regard to interchange fees."
Frank finished with this: "I await learning from Mr. Bachus, which of the other statements he is reported to have made, he will tell us he never made."
Fed to Promontory
Two former senior Federal Reserve Bank officials have joined the consulting firm Promontory Financial Group as managing directors.
William Rutledge, former executive vice president for bank supervision at the Federal Reserve Bank of the New York, and Stephen Hoffman, former executive vice president of banking supervision and regulation at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, joined the firm this month.
Rutledge began April 4 and Hoffman's first day is Monday.
Gross Promoted
The Mortgage Bankers Association has promoted Jim Gross to vice president of financial accounting and public policy.
Gross will focus on industry policy issues and setting MBA priorities.
He will continue to manage the group's strategy on legislative, regulatory and industry issues for financial accounting, tax policy and bank regulations.
Gross joined the MBA in 2008. Previously he was NetBank Inc.'s chief financial officer. He also was a mortgage banking specialist for Deloitte and certified financial planner at New America Mortgage, IndyMac and J.I. Kislak Mortgage.
