Sheila Bair to lead private financial risk council

07 Jun, 2012

Sheila Bair, who helped steer the US financial system through the recent credit crisis, is forming a new private-sector group called the Systemic Risk Council to try to accelerate reforms. A former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Bair will team up with former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Brooksley Born and other experts to advise current regulators about risks to financial markets. "As evidenced by the 2008 crisis and even recent headlines, we need a more effective and efficient early-warning system to detect issues that jeopardise the functioning of US financial markets before they disrupt credit flows to the real economy." Bair said in a statement.
Bair left her FDIC post last year and now is a senior advisor to the Pew Charitable Trusts, which is helping to form the Systemic Risk Council. During the 2007-2009 financial crisis, Bair was an outspoken critic of Wall Street executives and often clashed with other regulators who were more supportive of taxpayer bailouts of banks and other financial institutions.

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