WSJ: President Barack Obama plans to meet Friday with about a dozen of the U.S.'s top banking chiefs in an unusual gathering designed to discuss the administration's plans to shore up the financial sector.
Attendees are expected to include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. The meeting comes as relations between Washington and Wall Street are frayed following last week's furor over bonuses paid to American International Group Inc. employees.
At the same time, the administration is relying heavily on private investors and Wall Street banks to implement its various rescue programs and needs to repair its relationship.
Several bank chief executives have openly criticized the White House's handling of the financial crisis, especially its public announcement of "stress tests" designed to measure banks' financial health that led to a sharp selloff in financial stocks.
Top bank executives often come to Washington but rarely meet privately en masse with top government officials. It is also unusual for the White House to hold such meetings, which are usually handled by the Treasury or Federal Reserve.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Obama To Meet With Bank Execs March 27
Timothy Geithner will meet with them on Thursday and Obama will meet with banking execs on Friday.
