The Financial Services Forum represents the interests and views of the eight largest and most diversified financial institutions headquartered in the United States. The Forum members are Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corporation and Wells Fargo.
These internationally active institutions are a leading source of lending and investment in the United States and serve millions of consumers, businesses, investors and communities throughout the country.
The Forum works to advance policies that promote savings and investment, deep and liquid capital markets, a competitive global marketplace, and a sound financial system. It also develops evidence-based information on the value of its members to the U.S. economy and communities.
Forum members employ 755,000 people in the United States.
Since the financial crisis, the eight members of the Forum have taken significant steps to enhance the safety and resilience of their institutions and, as a consequence, the financial system as a whole. Forum members doubled their liquidity and increased their capital, which acts as a cushion against losses, by more than 40 percent from 2010 to 2020.
Forum members have actively worked to support customers, communities and the economy during the COVID-19 crisis. Through the Forum, the members announced in March 2020 that they were suspending share buybacks[4] and were accessing the Federal Reserve's discount window.[5] The Forum also joined other trade groups in advocating for support for U.S. businesses and consumers, such as supporting additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program to support small businesses.[6]
The Financial Services Forum was established in 2000 by a core group of financial institution chief executive officers (CEO) following the enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999 (GLBA). The Forum's membership expanded and changed over time and in 2017, the Forum was reconstituted to represent solely the interests and views of the CEOs of the eight U.S.-based banks that had been designated as Global Systemically Important Financial Institutions.
Kevin Fromer, former Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department, was appointed to serve as the Forum's president and CEO in 2017. In an interview with Politico in 2018,[7] Fromer discussed the role of the Forum, “I think there's value in ensuring that individuals who are talking about the banks — whether they're large banks or community banks or regional banks — understand the value that those institutions provide.”
