Goodbye, Bank Chiefs?

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and GM’s top executives have all been ousted—should Citigroup and Bank of America’s CEOs be worried, too? The FDIC chairman is saying that last week’s stress test results will have more consequences than the $74.6 billion in capital needed to prop up the ailing bank industry. “Management needs to be evaluated,” said chairman Sheila Bair Friday on a Bloomberg television show to be broadcast this weekend. “Have they been doing a good job? Are there people who can do a better job?” The FDIC immediately released a statement qualifying Bair’s remarks, stating, “She did not refer to CEOs specifically,” and added, “Bair also did not suggest the federal government will remove the bank CEOs.” In a briefing on Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “Those regulators also will make determinations about not just the suitability of those plans going forward, but whether or not the corporate leadership of those institutions is right in instituting what has to happen in those plans.”