Lawmakers open to Biden’s call to claw back SVB executive pay
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s call for legislation that would allow regulators to claw back executive bonuses and stock sale proceeds in the lead up to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse has found a receptive audience on Capitol Hill.
Democrats and Republicans are unlikely to come together to tighten bank regulations following the collapse of SVB of Santa Clara, California, and Signature Bank of New York City, but members of both parties say they’re open to legislation that would punish executives for their role in the bank failures.
Democrats are toying with ideas that would retroactively apply to SVB and Signature executives, and Republicans say any legislation would have to be narrowly tailored, even to the point of applying only to the two failed banks.
“As far as clawbacks, there are provisions under law that apply to other sectors of the world of finance that perhaps should be applied here. We’re going to take a look at that,” House Financial Services Chairman Patrick T. McHenry, R-N.C., said at House Republicans’ policy retreat in Orlando, Florida, last week.
—CQ-Roll Call
Maryland report on Catholic Church expected to shine light on parishes and schools with multiple child abusers
BALTIMORE — The sanctuary at St. Mark Catholic Church was nearly full for 11 a.m. Mass.
A white-robed priest gave a sermon on the recent Sunday morning about a Samaritan woman who met Jesus at a well. Parishioners lined up to receive Communion. And as congregants flooded to their cars afterward, a few paused to share thoughts on an issue that could soon engulf the historic parish in Catonsville, Maryland.
Sometime in the next week or so, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office is expected to release its report on the sexual abuse of children and young adults by priests and brothers in the Archdiocese of Baltimore dating back 80 years. Its authors identify 158 men who abused and tortured more than 600 people between the mid-1940s and 2002, and describe the archdiocese’s efforts to protect abusers and silence victims.
A summary that appeared in a court filing in November said some sites were home to multiple predator priests, sometimes several at once, and that one congregation was assigned 11 over 40 years.
—The Baltimore Sun
Can California put an end to corporate greenwashing?
LOS ANGELES — Nearly three years ago, American Airlines pledged to eradicate its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in an effort to help avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
One of the largest airlines in the world, American carved a path toward its net-zero goal by focusing on six key sectors, including sustainable aviation fuel, fleet renewal and operational improvements.
"At American, we know that the challenge of climate change is acute and imminent, and we recognize our industry's contribution to it," the airline's website says. "We believe we have an obligation to our customers, team members, shareholders and the communities we serve to transition to operating a low-carbon airline."
But a recent report has called that commitment into question. The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor found American Airlines' strategies to be of "very low integrity," saying the airline's net-zero promise lacks a commitment to reduce its own emissions, and that its offsetting program "has the potential to mislead customers."
—Los Angeles Times
Scotland’s new leader faces same old rancor over independence
Taking the stage like a rock star to cheering fans, Nicola Sturgeon did what she’d done for almost a decade as leader of Scotland’s independence campaign. She rallied her troops for the next fight.
It was Nov. 23 and the Supreme Court in London had just torpedoed her plan to hold a referendum on breaking away from the rest of the U.K. The push for full autonomy in the wake of Britain’s departure from the European Union was now a “movement for democracy,” she told flag-waving supporters outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. “Let’s get to it, my friends.”
Less than three months later, Sturgeon announced her resignation. The official line was that it was time to pass on the baton as head of Scotland’s administration and the Scottish National Party. Yet looming large was a campaign that had failed to convince a divided nation and make the U.K.’s refusal to permit a vote politically, if not legally, untenable.
From pubs to parliament, the wrangling over its constitutional future has come to define Scotland in a way that Brexit has cleaved U.K. politics in recent years. The difference is that while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is slowly mending ties with the E.U., short of a high-stakes referendum there’s no deal to be done that will heal the rift over Scottish independence anytime soon.
—Bloomberg News
