Warren Proposes To Create Bank Criminal Activity Investigation Unit

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to create a law enforcement unit to keep big banks in check.

According to American Banker, Warren introduced the Ending Too Big to Jail Act to hold big bank executives accountable when their financial institutions break the law.

“When Wall Street CEOs break the law, they should go to jail like anyone else. The fraud on Wall Street won’t stop until executives know they will be hauled out in handcuffs for cheating their customers and clients,” Warren said in a press release. “Instead of passing the Bank Lobbyist Act, Congress should be marking the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis by strengthening rules on banks and bankers so Wall Street can never again get away with cheating Americans and crashing the economy.”

The bill not only creates a permanent law enforcement unit to investigate crimes at banks, but also requires senior executives at banks with $10 billion or more in assets to prove each year that they have conducted due diligence and found no criminal activity or civil fraud.

In addition, the legislation would reinstate the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) as well as the Special Inspector General for Financial Institution Crime (SIGFIC), expanding its jurisdiction to investigate and help prosecute financial crimes.

The announcement comes as the Senate just passed a rollback on the Dodd-Frank Act, loosening regulations for more than two dozen banks. Warren and other critics have dubbed the new bill “the Bank Lobbyist Act.”

“The American people aren’t going to stand by while the big banks and other giant corporations run this economy and this Congress for their own benefit. And soon – maybe not today, or next week, or even in the next election – but soon, they will demand a government that works for the people,” said Warren.