FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 18, 2012

CONTACT:

Laena Fallon, 202-457-8783

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, members of The Financial Services Forum sent a letter to President Barack Obama and members of Congress urging them to work together and reach a bipartisan agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff, as well as to take concrete steps to address the nation’s debt situation and restore the long-term fiscal footing of the United States.

“At a time when economic growth is less than 2 percent, and with nearly 25 million Americans either out of work or underemployed, the still-fragile U.S. economy cannot sustain – and the American people do not deserve – the impact of more gridlock in Washington,” the CEOs wrote in the letter.  “We urge [policymakers] to negotiate a bipartisan agreement as quickly as possible to prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff so that we can avoid the damage to the economy and the markets that inaction will cause.”

The full letter can be viewed here.

CEOs who signed the letter are as follows:

• Thomas Wilson, Chairman, President and CEO, Allstate Insurance Company
• Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America
• Gerald Hassell, Chairman, President and CEO, BNY Mellon
• Michael Corbat, CEO, Citigroup
• Brady Dougan, CEO, Credit Suisse AG
• Anshu Jain, Co-Chairman of the Management Board and Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank AG
• James Weddle, Managing Partner, Edward Jones
• Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
• Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Steven Kandarian, Chairman, President and CEO, MetLife, Inc.
• James Gorman, Chairman and CEO, Morgan Stanley
• John Strangfeld, Chairman and CEO, Prudential
• Joseph Hooley, Chairman, President and CEO, State Street Corporation
• Sergio Ermotti, Group CEO, UBS AG
• John Stumpf, Chairman and CEO, Wells Fargo & Company
• Robert Nichols, President and CEO, Financial Services Forum

Collectively, the financial services sector employs nearly 8 million Americans or 5.8 percent of the workforce in the United States.

The Financial Services Forum is a non-partisan financial and economic policy organization comprising the CEOs of 20 of the largest and most diversified financial services institutions doing business in the United States. The purpose of the Forum is to pursue policies that encourage savings and investment, promote an open and competitive global marketplace, and ensure the opportunity of people everywhere to participate fully and productively in the 21st-century global economy.

Follow the Forum on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fsforum

###