Ms. Lummis said it was “her understanding” that Ms. Raskin had called the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City about the matter, which Ms. Raskin neither confirmed nor denied during the hearing. The Kansas City Fed had no comment.
“Senator Lummis engaged innuendo with no facts presented to back up her false claims,” Chris Meagher, a White House spokesman, said following the hearing. The White House did not dispute that the Fed granted the Reserve Trust’s account while Ms. Raskin sat on its board.
Ms. Raskin served on the board of Reserve Trust from 2017 to 2019. The company was granted a Fed charter in 2018. Master accounts give companies access to the U.S. payment system infrastructure, allowing it to move money without partnering with a bank, among other advantages.
The company, which could not be immediately reached for comment, advertises on its website that it “is the first fintech trust company with a Federal Reserve master account,” and describes the advantages that confers.
Mr. Lummis suggested that Ms. Raskin may have financially benefited from her involvement with Reserve Trust. Ms. Raskin cashed out stocks in the firm for more than $1 million in 2020, her husband’s newly updated financial disclosures showed. That transaction is reflected as capital gains income on her own financial disclosures. Ms. Raskin is married to Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat.
It is unclear how, or whether, Ms. Raskin’s private sector dealings will influence her chances. Mr. Katz at Capital Alpha said it was probably not going to determine the outcome, but noted that “it’s not nothing” and it “could gain some legs.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and a critic of the revolving door between regulators and private sector, seemed to hint at the issue during the hearing.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/business/economy/federal-reserve-sarah-bloom-raskin.html
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