Lew Says No Company Above Law as Treasury Implements Dodd-Frank

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said no company is above the law and that the department will continue to implement the Dodd-Frank law designed to keep taxpayers from paying for the mistakes of financial companies.

“No one and no company is above the law and we need to enforce our laws so that we protect the American people,” Lew told reporters today after touring a Siemens AG (SIE) facility in Alpharetta, Georgia. “We’re going to complete the implementation of Dodd-Frank and we will continue to implement all the laws that we have.”‪

Lew was responding to a question about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s comments last week that the size of the largest financial institutions makes it difficult for the Justice Department to bring criminal charges when there’s wrongdoing.

Lew, who was holding his first press conference as Treasury secretary, also said the U.S. needs a dynamic economy that creates jobs as he highlighted a “bright future” for American manufacturers. Separately, his department announced in Washington that he’ll travel to Beijing March 19-20 for talks with officials in China’s new government.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Katz in Washington at ikatz2@bloomberg.net; Kasia Klimasinska in Washington at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

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March 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew speaks about the importance of U.S. manufacturing, fiscal negotiations between the administration and Congress, and the Treasury's implementation of the Dodd-Frank law that overhauled financial regulation. Lew talks with reporters after touring a Siemens AG facility in Alpharetta, Georgia. (Source: Bloomberg)