Lee Fang from the Republic Report reported on May 15:

 

In March, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) led members from both parties in introducing legislation to delay the implementation of the Volcker Rule, a new regulation to limit risky trading by big banks. The legislation may come back to haunt Warner, who has cultivated close financial ties with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

 

Until the news last week, revealing that J.P. Morgan lost at least $2 billion due to a synthetic credit securities trading scheme, the bank had been leading an impressive lobbying campaign to weaken financial reform. The bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, and his legions of K Street lobbyists (over 48 registered lobbyists), had worked to chisel away at the Volcker Rule. The measure, scheduled for implementation this summer, would have applied to the type of trading that resulted in the loses for the bank.

 

Warner’s ties to the investment bank should be placed under the microscope. The Huffington Post noted that in the first three months of last year, the senator had received over a quarter of his donations from the bank, which had organized a fundraiser in his honor. But the ties between Warner and J.P. Morgan run deep. A Republic Report review of Warner’s personal finance disclosures reveal that the Virginia senator keeps a large amount of his money invested with Dimon’s bank. Most surprising is the fact that Warner is among the elite group of investors with money in Highbridge Capital, a J.P. Morgan-owned hedge fund that might be affected by the Volcker Rule.      

 

And maybe another reason why Senator Warner won’t endorse better regulation for banks is because the financial industry is the single largest donorto his campaign.