July 2, 2024

The Honorable Jerome Powell
Chair
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20551

Dear Chair Powell,I write to you today with fresh concern about your cozy relationship with bank executives and theimpact that their outsized influence may have on Federal Reserve (Fed) policy. Bank executives’
special access to you and other key Fed decisionmakers represents another troubling example ofthe culture of corruption that has taken root during your time leading the Fed.
I am particularly concerned about reports that you have met or had private conversations withJamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, at least 19 times since becoming Chair of the Federal
Reserve in February 2018.1 You have also reportedly met ten times with BlackRock CEO Larry
Fink, seven times with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, and at least nine times with theheads of other major banks.2 This is an astonishing amount of your time to give to the CEOs of thenation’s largest banks and financial firms.
These private meetings and conversations appear to be shaping Fed policy, as you have intervenedto stop progress on: 1) increasing bank capital requirements per the Basel III recommendations, 2)
reforming bank executive compensation structure to discourage excessive risk taking, and 3)
strengthening scrutiny of potential bank mergers. In a letter I sent you two weeks ago, I noted that
Mr. Dimon’s publicly reported efforts to target you as the weak link among the banking regulators
on Basel III have seemingly worked.3 The Fed is now floating a gutted proposal.4
The Fed has also refused to join the congressionally-mandated, multi-agency effort to finalize
reasonable compensation restrictions for bank executives. Regulators were required to establish
these guidelines by “[nine] months after the date of enactment” of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was

Punchbowl News, “Powell’s man on the Street,” March 17, 2024, https://punchbowl.news/article/jpmorgan-chaseceo-jamie-dimon-fed-jay-powell/.
2Id.
3Letter from Elizabeth Warren to Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell, June 17, 2024,
https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/final_-_warren_letter_to_powell_re_basel_iii_cuts.pdf.
4Bloomberg, “Federal Reserve Floats Weaker Version of Planned Bank-Capital Overhaul,” Katanga Johnson, June24, 2024, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-24/federal-reserve-floats-weaker-version-of-plannedbank-capital-overhaul.
1April 21, 2011.5 But nearly 14 years after Dodd-Frank’s passage, you, Chair Powell, are reported
to be solely responsible for blocking Section 956’s implementation.6
The list goes on: the Fed has also failed to make progress on applying greater scrutiny to big bankmergers. Last year’s string of very large bank failures demonstrates that bank regulators are notappropriately weighing the effect of potential bank mergers on our financial stability. In fact, in2021, the Federal Reserve approved Silicon Valley Bank’s request to acquire Boston Private Bank& Trust, claiming at the time that the merged bank would not be “so interconnected with otherfirms or markets that it would pose significant risk to the financial system in the event of financial
distress.”7 Obviously, that wasn’t true; continuing to approve mergers under the old rubric is
putting our financial system at risk while lining wealthy executives’ and investors’ pockets.
JPMorgan Chase made $3 billion from its Fed-approved acquisition of First Republic Bank.8 Mr.
Dimon himself made an extra $1.5 million dollars for his “continued exemplary leadership”
according to JPMorgan’s Board of Directors, after he orchestrated the purchase.9
Mr. Dimon is understandably pleased with the results of his meetings with you: he has said you
are “pretty much doing the right stuff,” when it comes to bank oversight—or lack thereof.10 His
warm sentiments are unsurprising; since you began in your role as Federal Reserve Chair, youhave done big banks’ bidding. You championed the 2018 Dodd-Frank tailoring rollback that
directly contributed to Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse.11 In a hearing last June, you told methat you want to “learn the right lessons from [SVB’s collapse] and to undertake to address them,”
yet a month later, you walked back that commitment in a carefully-worded press release in which
you indicated that you did not believe the Basel III proposal “strikes the right balance” between“keep[ing] our financial system strong and protect[ing] our economy, while imposing no moreburden than is necessary.”12 During the Basel III vote, you continued to push for “tailoring”—asynonym for weakening the rules that regulators around the world agreed are necessary to prevent
another financial crisis.13
5

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Public Law 111-203.
Bloomberg Law, “Fed Faces Heat From Fellow Regulators on Banker Bonus Proposal,” Evan Weinberger, May 8,2024, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/fed-faces-heat-from-fellow-regulators-on-banker-bonus-proposal.
7
Federal Reserve Board, “Order Approving the Merger of Bank Holding Companies, the Merger of Banks, and theEstablishment of Branches,” press release, June 10, 2021, p. 18,
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/orders20210610a1.pdf.
8JPMorgan Chase, “Chairman and CEO Letter to Shareholders,” April 8, 2024,
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ir/annual-report/2023/ar-ceo-letters.
9
MarketWatch, “Jamie Dimon gets $1.5M raise and heaps of praise after JPMorgan Chase’s record profit,” SteveGelsi, January 19, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jamie-dimon-gets-1-5m-raise-and-heaps-of-praise-afterjpmorgan-chases-record-profit-ebfca436.
10Washington Post, “On eve of critical Fed meeting, Trump suggests he might remove Chair Jerome H. Powell,”Heather Long, June 18, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/06/18/eve-critical-fed-meeting-trumpsuggests-he-might-want-remove-chair-powell/.
11
U.S. Federal Reserve Board, “Review of the Federal Reserve’s Supervision and Regulation of Silicon Valley
Bank,” April 28, 2023, p. 3, https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/svb-review-20230428.pdf.
12Senate Committee on Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs, “Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to theCongress,” June 22, 2023, https://www.banking.senate.gov/hearings/06/15/2023/the-semiannual-monetary-policyreport-to-the-congress; U.S. Federal Reserve Board, “Statement by Chair Jerome H. Powell,” press release, July 27,
2023, https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/powell-statement-20230727.htm.
13U.S. Federal Reserve Board, “Statement by Chair Jerome H. Powell,” press release, July 27, 2023,
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/powell-statement-20230727.htm.
62

Your favoritism for the entities you regulate has manifested in a culture of corruption that has casta shadow over the Fed’s decision-making. During your tenure, the Federal Reserve has been
submerged in scandal after scandal. Federal Reserve officials made millions of dollars’ worth oftrades based on insider information.14 A Federal Reserve president gave a closed-door, off-therecord briefing to Citigroup investors.15 Your hand-picked Federal Reserve Inspector General hasbeen unable or unwilling to hold you or anyone else accountable for these scandals.16 Your close
relationships and regular meetings with bank executives add to the long list of misdeeds byFederal Reserve officials.
Banks already have an outsized influence on our democracy. Lobbying expenditures by the majorbanking trade groups and three dozen of the biggest banks from April through June last year were
nearly 20 percent higher than in the year prior, and political contributions from banks rose 54
percent from 2007.17 Mr. Dimon’s JPMorgan has spent nearly $15 million on lobbying since
2019—and almost four million in 2023 alone.18Given Wall Street’s ability and willingness to drown out the public interest on these issues, it isespecially disappointing that your calendar is dominated by meetings with big bank CEOs. While
you have met with these CEOs dozens of times, analysis of your public calendar by my staff
reveals that you have met with leading financial investor and consumer advocacy groups only six
times in your six years at the helm of the Federal Reserve.19
You are charged with protecting the economic and financial well-being of 300 million Americans,
not the nation’s largest banks. The American public deserves a Federal Reserve Chair who worksfor them.
I hope that in the future you will seek to obtain a more balanced perspective on Fed policy issues.
And I ask that you please respond to the following questions by July 19, 2024:
1. What topics did you discuss in your meetings with Mr. Dimon? Please describe the contentof each of your 19 meetings.

14

Letter from Elizabeth Warren to Federal Reserve Inspector General Mark Bialek, March 6, 2024,
https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2024.03.05%20Letter%20to%20Fed%20IG%20Mark%20Bialek%20re.%202024%20report.pdf.
15
Letter from Elizabeth Warren to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, November 7, 2022,
https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2022.11.04%20Letter%20to%20Chair%20Powell%20re%20Fed%20tr
ading%20scandal%20and%20FOMC.pdf.
16
Letter from Elizabeth Warren to Federal Reserve Inspector General Mark Bialek, July 24, 2023,
https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2023.07.24%20Letter%20to%20IG%20of%20the%20Fed%20Reserve%20re%20Conflicts%20of%20Interest.pdf.
17
Bloomberg, “Bank Lobbying Climbs Nearly 20% Ahead of New Fed Capital Rules,” Laura Davison and BillAllison, July 21, 2023, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-21/bank-lobbying-climbed-nearly-20-asnew-fed-rules-loom. Forbes, “Basel III Fearmongering By Lobbyists Should Not Be Believed,” Mayra RodriguezValladares, February 29, 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mayrarodriguezvalladares/2024/02/29/do-not-believebank-lobbyists-fearmongering-about-basel-iii/?sh=82fccd56979a.
18
Open Secrets, “Client Profile: JPMorgan Chase & Co,” https://www.opensecrets.org/federallobbying/clients/summary?id=D000000103.
19
Staff analysis32. Did you discuss Basel III with Mr. Dimon or other big bank executives who would besubject to Basel III’s requirements?
3. Has Mr. Dimon or his staff ever shared materials related to Basel III? If so, please provided
these documents.
4. What, if any, commitments have you made to Mr. Dimon and other big bank executives
who are subject to Basel III?
5. Have you ever discussed Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Act in your communications with
Mr. Dimon and other bank executives?
6. Has Mr. Dimon or his staff ever shared materials related to Section 956? If so, pleaseprovide these documents.
7. What, if any, commitments have you made to Mr. Dimon and other big bank executives
regarding Section 956 rules?
8. To what extent have your conversations with big bank executives shaped your inaction on
updating the 1995 bank merger guidelines?
9. What ethics rules are in place governing Federal Reserve officials’ meetings with bankCEOs and other outside interests?

Sincerely,___________________________
Elizabeth Warren
United States Senator4