Barney Frank, the chair of the House Financial Services committee, has invited the heads of the first eight banks that received bailout funds to testify at a hearing next Wednesday on the bailout, reports CNNMoney.com.
Those CEOs are:
Ken Lewis of Bank of America; Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Vikram Pandit of Citi; Ronald Logue of State Street; Robert Kelly of Bank of New York; John Stumpf of Wells Fargo; John Mack of Morgan Stanley; and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs.
But notice that word “invite.” It appears that the corporate titans are free to choose not to attend — even though Frank is seeking crucial information about what their firms did with the hundreds of billions in taxpayer money we gave them.
Indeed, CNNMoney.com adds:
A press secretary declined to comment on whether any of the CEOs have accepted the invitation.
So it sounds like a real possibility that at least some of those CEOs might just go ahead and decline Frank’s polite invitation.
We’ve contacted the committee’s press office to ask whether subpoenaing the CEOs was considered, or might still be in the future. We’ll let you know what we hear.