Ex Bear Sterns chief risk officer to head Fed division on bank supervision

[Dari]

He was either incompetent at Bear Sterns or he let the traders man-handle him. Either way, he should be the last person supervising banks. He should be at McDonalds.


link

Ex-Bear Sterns executive moves to Fed
Former chief risk officer at the defunct brokerage is now overseeing U.S. banks for the Federal Reserve.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The former chief risk officer at investment bank Bear Stearns Cos., which nearly collapsed in March, is now a senior official of the Federal Reserve division that supervises U.S. banks.

Michael Alix, who worked at Bear Stearns for 12 years and was its senior risk manager since 2006, was named a senior vice president in the bank supervision group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to an announcement by the Fed.

The appointment is apt to raise questions because of the key role Alix played at Bear Stearns and given the Federal Reserve's role in Bear Stearns' sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM, Fortune 500) after its breathtaking slide. In his new job at the central bank, Alix will help oversee the financial safety and soundness of banks, which are inspected by Federal Reserve examiners.

In March, with Bear Stearns on the brink of bankruptcy, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -- with the involvement of Chairman Ben Bernanke and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner -- orchestrated a buyout of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan. The deal was forged with a $29 billion federal backstop from the Fed.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating the conduct of Bear Stearns managers before its blowup amid the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. Prosecutors have said they expect to bring additional criminal charges against two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers who were accused last summer of lying to investors. The eventual implosion of the defendants' hedge funds cost investors $1.8 billion and began a domino effect that pushed Bear Stearns itself to the brink.

Alix, who was appointed by the New York Fed's board, officially assumed the senior vice president position on Monday, the announcement said. He will be a senior adviser to William Rutledge, the executive vice president of the bank supervision division.

Alix's appointment was first reported Tuesday by blogger Scott Rothbart. New York Fed spokesman Andrew Williams didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Before becoming Bear Stearns' chief risk officer in 2006, Alix was the bank's global head of credit risk management from 1996-2006. Before that, he was credit officer and vice president at Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER, Fortune 500)

 

[techs]

WTF hired this idiot?

You're looking at an administration that put a guy who was head of a horse association in charge of the Federal Emergency Management agency.

And yet we still ask this question?

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: Dari
He was either incompetent at Bear Sterns or he let the traders man-handle him. Either way, he should be the last person supervising banks. He should be at McDonalds.

While I don't think he should be working for the Fed in this capacity, that last statement deserves a :roll:

 

[trenchfoot]

Along with the $700 Billion give-away that keeps on giving, that big happy family of crooks up on Wall St. and in D.C. will always rely on themselves to keep things from getting out of their control. Nothing can change that.

 

[bamacre]

Government-managed economy FTW!

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: techs
WTF hired this idiot?

You're looking at an administration that put a guy who was head of a horse association in charge of the Federal Emergency Management agency.

And yet we still ask this question?

You don't even understand the difference between the federal reserve and the executive branch, do you.

 

[brandonbull]

Originally posted by: tweaker2
Along with the $700 Billion give-away that keeps on giving, that big happy family of crooks up on Wall St. and in D.C. will always rely on themselves to keep things from getting out of their control. Nothing can change that.

Why o why are people surprised and or shocked. Do you think the rich good 'ol boy network doesn't have each other's back? They all vaction in the same places; they attend the same schools; they are members of the same little clubs; they have homes in the same places, and I'm sure they are some how related.

 

[JS80]

I bet you guys can't explain how and why Bear went under.

 

[compuwiz1]

Hey look, it's the fox watching the hen house!

 

[RightIsWrong]

Obviously, this is the guy to place in charge of overseeing how taxpayer money is allocated since his expert risk analysis helped Bear Stearns to avoid the pitfalls that a lot of other banks....er....nevermind

 

[kage69]

After the last eight years, this doesn't surprise me. Par the course really.

 

[CanOWorms]

The article doesn't say anything about his performance. Perhaps he warned about the risks but his advice was not considered.

 

[Rangoric]

Originally posted by: RightIsWrong
Obviously, this is the guy to place in charge of overseeing how taxpayer money is allocated since his expert risk analysis helped Bear Stearns to avoid the pitfalls that a lot of other banks....er....nevermind

You mean when someone insinuated that they might have a problem (lie) that everyone of their backers took their money out and basically cased a "Run on the Bank" type situation to a company is a normal thing?

That failing due to rumor mongering and not actual deeds is somehow a "pitfall"?

 

[PingSpike]

Calm down guys, they probably just hired him so that when he shows up for work the first day they can bludgeon him to death with an old rotary telephone. I mean, that is the most logical explanation for this situation.

 

[Dari]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
The article doesn't say anything about his performance. Perhaps he warned about the risks but his advice was not considered.

Then ge should've quit. But, if you read the article, you can see that he was in the risk management department for 10 years prior. To me that says that he was a good push-over for traders.

 

[Corn]

Originally posted by: Dari

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
The article doesn't say anything about his performance. Perhaps he warned about the risks but his advice was not considered.

Then ge should've quit. But, if you read the article, you can see that he was in the risk management department for 10 years prior. To me that says that he was a good push-over for traders.

Why should he have quit? Risk management is always seen as the profit prevention department. Quitting to go somewhere else merely results in the same frustrations, but somewhere else. You've got not a single idea regarding the reporting structure at BS. If it was anything like my last employer, sales made the decisions regardless of the recommendations made by risk.

You're a self-important moron who dismisses any opinion other than your own--obviously you think this guy should have quit, how dare his opinion not be heeded by the powers that be! One day when you grow up, you'll realize the real world rarely works that way.