The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations met last week to discuss the relevance of the Office of Financial Research (OFR).
The subcommittee heard testimony from OFR Director Richard Berner, who answered questions about its management and structure as well as its public work-product. Further, the subcommittee examined how its cooperation with Congress. In addition, the subcommittee looked at the office’s relationship with of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
Some of the subcommittee members took a negative view of the office.
“From studies that impugn the workplace culture to low morale, multiple ongoing investigations, and today’s harsh criticism of OFR by the Government Accountability Office, it appears to both outsiders and insiders that this organization is completely dysfunctional,” Subcommittee Chair Ann Wagner (R-MO) said. “Following these reports of mismanagement, questionable analysis, bureaucratic redundancy, and the inability to fulfill its statutory mandate, one question comes to mind; why does the OFR exist?”
The OFR was established in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to support the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the council’s member organizations, and the public.
It was designed to promote financial stability in the financial system by measuring and analyzing risks, conducting research, and collecting financial data.
It was suggested by some at the hearing that the office should be eliminated, calling it a redundant federal bureaucracy, as countless other federal agencies already perform market surveillance and data analyzation.