Retired congressman Barney Frank, who helped pass strict financial regulations in the wake of the 2008 crash, was on the board of directors of New York’s Signature Bank, which was shut down over the weekend. Frank has turned to blaming cryptocurrency for the volatility that led to this implosion. He also rejected the notion that a Trump era rollback of the Dodd-Frank regulations contributed to the collapse. “I think, if it hadn’t been for FTX and the extreme nervousness about crypto, that this wouldn’t have happened—even to SVB or to us,” he told Politico. “And that wasn’t something that could have been anticipated by regulators.” Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) insisted in a New York Times op-ed that “had Congress and the Federal Reserve not rolled back the stricter oversight, SVB and Signature would have been subject to stronger liquidity and capital requirements to withstand financial shocks.” The 82-year-old owned 5,542 shares of Signature Bank worth $825,000 as of February, which are now effectively useless. He’s expected to leave the board later this year, according to a filing.
