Politics

Banking Committee Staffer Revolves to Financial Consulting Firm

By Paul Blumenthal

Promontory Financial Group announced yesterday the hiring of Amy Friend, the former chief counsel on the Senate Banking Committee. Friend will work as Promontory's managing director and will help Promontory clients with issues including "risk management, governance, and the regulatory implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010."

Promontory was most recently registered to lobby in 2009 when it's CEO, Eugene Levy, was signed up to lobby for GMAC, the banking arm of General Motors.

Friend brings with her three years of experience on the Senate Banking Committee, tens years of experience at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and ten years in the House of Representatives as a staffer to various finance relevant committees.

Promontory's web site promotes the location of their offices as being in close proximity to all financial regulators, however, they are not currently registered to lobby. The firm is likely part of the "invisible lobby" of powerful figures and former government officials who have found ways to use their relationships with government bodies and officials while skirting lobbying disclosure requirements.

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on January 18, 2011 (boomark / email).