Senator Warren calls for public hearings on bank waivers

NEW YORK — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for Department of Labor hearings on whether banks accused of rigging foreign exchange markets should be allowed to manage retirement accounts, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

“When banks plead guilty to a crime, federal agencies must do more than look the other way,” Warren told the Financial Times. “The SEC has already granted waivers to each of these banks without any detailed explanation, but it is not too late for the Department of Labor to hold a public hearing before it decides that such brazen lawbreakers can be trusted managing workers' retirement accounts.”

Five of the world's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., were fined $5.7 billion, and four of them pleaded guilty to criminal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates, authorities said on Wednesday.

UBS AG, the fifth bank, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates, the Justice Department said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission gave the banks a series of waivers to let them continue their usual securities business shortly once they agreed to plead guilty to the criminal charges. The banks are expected to apply separately to the Department of Labor for exemptions to deal with pension and retirement savings plans.

The banks can continue to work for them while their applications are reviewed, which could take months.

A Labor Department spokesman has said the department had received applications from JPMorgan and Citigroup. The Financial Times report said the Labor Department has also received an application from Barclays bar, citing people familiar with the requests.

Granting waivers to big banks that break the law has become a flash point at the SEC, where Commissioner Kara Stein, a Democrat, in particular has openly criticized the agency for rubber-stamping banks' requests.