'Why Are Doing That?': John Kennedy Rapid-Fire Questions Key Banking Nominees

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At Thursday's Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) questioned nominees.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:01Kennedy.

00:02Governor Bowman.

00:03The floor is yours.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:05You're welcome.

00:07You're a fine American.

00:11You still have to pay your taxes, though.

00:14I do.

00:15On May 1st now, because of Hurricane Helene.

00:17I understand.

00:18I got an extension on mine.

00:19I'm very excited about that.

00:20I'll extend to you 30 seconds for this colloquy.

00:24Governor Bowman, briefly, if you will, because we've got to go vote.

00:28What's the Basel III endgame?

00:32It's an international agreement of different countries that participate in the Basel Accords.

00:39What's its objective?

00:41To ensure that there's parity across jurisdictions for financial regulation and a level playing field.

00:48It calls for more regulation of American banks, doesn't it?

00:52In some cases, it does, yes.

00:55Your predecessor, Mr. Barr, loved Basel III endgame like the devil loves sin, didn't he?

01:04He embraced it in his proposal.

01:07Mm-hmm.

01:08He bear-hugged it.

01:10He French-kissed it.

01:12What problem are we trying to solve with Basel III endgame?

01:19The original proposal was intended to increase capital.

01:26No.

01:27Mr. Barr's proposal.

01:28Right.

01:29What problem are we trying to solve?

01:32We have stress tests right now for banks, right?

01:35That's absolutely correct.

01:36And we have capital standards, right?

01:38We do.

01:39What's broken about it?

01:40I think we'll need to take a fresh look at the Basel, the last Basel agreement and determine what's appropriate for U.S. banks and their ability to have a level playing field across, around the world.

01:53Well, let me put it another way.

01:54Washington has this propensity, when something's not broken, is to take it apart and loosen a few screws so that it will be.

02:07Now, if there's some problem that we're trying to solve with adopting these international standards, I'd like to know it.

02:20I asked that repeatedly of Mr. Barr.

02:23Mm-hmm.

02:24And he never could.

02:26I mean, he was and is.

02:28I like him very much.

02:29Very smart.

02:30He's also a silver-tongued devil.

02:32He could talk a dog off a meat wagon.

02:35And he never answered that question.

02:39And so it seems to me that what the Board of Governors has to do is come back and tell us what's broken.

02:48Let me ask Mr. Fogle.

02:55What's the International Monetary Fund?

02:58Briefly, if you don't mind.

03:00Senator, to be honest, I know what it is, but it actually isn't related to the job I've been nominated for, which is Global Markets at Commerce.

03:19Probably better handled by Treasury Department.

03:22All right.

03:23That's fair.

03:25I understand a dodge when I see it.

03:29You did that pretty artfully.

03:32How about you, Mr. Hurley?

03:34I bet you know.

03:36Yes, sir.

03:37I do know what the IMF is, and the—

03:40Briefly, if you don't mind.

03:42Well, so, you know, again, it would be my colleague who will—

03:45You own—the IM—you know—I'm hoping you're not telling me you don't know what the IMF, if you're going to be in charge of terrorism and financial crimes.

03:54So, yes, sir.

03:55I'm very familiar with the IMF.

03:57It won't be—you know, I'll have sanctions at TFI and be working with long—

04:03The IMF loans money to other countries, right?

04:06Who puts up most of the money for the IMF?

04:09The United States, sir.

04:10That's right.

04:11There are about 190 countries in it, and by far we put up most, right?

04:15Yes, sir.

04:16What are special drawing rights?

04:19I'm not terribly familiar with special drawing rights.

04:22You need to get familiar.

04:23Yes, sir.

04:24Special drawing right is when the IMF gets together and decides to declare a dividend to all of the countries.

04:32And it's really—it's like a dividend.

04:34It's really a sheet of paper that says any country can take these dividends, a sheet of paper, and go redeem it for the currency of any other country.

04:45And Secretary Yellen did that to the tune of $650 billion.

04:55And she dodged congressional approval by coming for an amount just below the trigger for us to approve it.

05:06We gave money to Iran, to Russia, to China, and we're putting up the money.

05:19Why aren't we doing that?

05:21Are you asking me, sir?

05:24Yes, sir.

05:25I completely agree, sir.

05:28Well, I've got a bill to say that whenever the Treasury catches a wild hare and decides they want to give away American taxpayer money to Iran, as Treasury Yellen did, that she has to come to Congress for approval.

05:45You'll support that, won't you?

05:47I look forward to looking at the legislation, sir.

05:49Yes, sir.

05:50Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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