Lloyd Bentsen: “I want to quote Alan Greenspan, because we have heard him talked a lot about. This quote is from the hearing on May 21…”

“I want to quote Alan Greenspan, because we have heard him talked a lot about. This quote is from the hearing on May 21, 22, 1997 in the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, and this is in response to a question which I asked about safety and soundness with respect to operating subsidiaries. He says, ``My concerns are not safety and soundness.'' So once and for all, this is Alan Greenspan and what he said. With respect to the subsidy, if we read the rest of the testimony, he says, The issue here is that the amount of the subsidization that is employed by the holding company in financing a section 20 securities affiliate is significantly less than it would be were it being financed as a subsidiary of a bank. Mr. Greenspan says that while there is no safety and soundness issue with respect to operating subsidiaries, there is a subsidy that occurs in both the holding company model as well as in the operating subsidiary model. Of course, he did not provide any evidence of that, and no one else has.”