DESPERATE TIMES

Barney Frank Says He Joined Shuttered Bank’s Board To 'Make Money'

The former Congressman was a key architect of federal legislation meant to prevent bank collapses.

Barney Frank, the author of landmark legislation meant to prevent bank collapses, defended his decision to join the board of now-closed Signature Bank by saying he "need[ed] to make some money.” Frank, who left Congress in 2013 and joined the bank’s board in 2015, was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank legislation, which sought to protect customers from banks' risky bets. In an interview with the Financial Times Wednesday, Frank defended his decision to join the bank—which collapsed Sunday, the third-largest U.S. bank failure ever—by saying he needed to make money and didn’t want to become a lobbyist after leaving Congress. “I need to make some money,” he said. “I do it in part by writing. But I also do it by joining boards. Logically, I’m asked to join boards on subjects with which I was identified.” He added that he didn’t think working for the bank detracted from his efforts to regulate the same institutions while in Congress. Frank earned approximately $2 million in his eight years at the bank, according to the Times’ calculations.