Attorney General Paxton sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) Director Martin Gruenberg, and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu about the promotion of left-wing political goals contributing to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”).
The Utah-led letter notes that, prior to SVB’s collapse, state attorneys general raised concerns about the federal government’s increased focus on “climate risk,” including in a letter sent to Acting Comptroller Hsu in 2022. As the attention of federal regulators has increasingly shifted to combating climate change, their ability to protect the integrity of American markets has diminished, as illustrated in the case of SVB’s collapse.
The factors leading to SVB’s failure are precisely the types of risks that federal regulators should monitor, but evidently missed in SVB’s case. To protect the stability of American markets and the millions of Americans who depend upon financial institutions, this cannot occur again. Our federal regulators must return to fulfilling their chief obligation in service to the American people—dutifully watching over America’s financial system—and cease using their positions to promote a radical climate agenda.
The letter states: “[Y]our focus on climate risk as a special category to be monitored and managed above all else has led to substantial issues in the financial system and weakened regulators’ ability to effectively monitor and supervise institutions for actual financial risk. Many—if not all—of these issues can be addressed by simply refocusing on safety and soundness, rather than using the financial system to pursue political goals. It is time to turn away from this mistaken path and refocus federal efforts on actual financial risks that have the ability to do real harm to the national economy.”
To read the full letter, click here.