“’More’ is not the answer here. ‘Better’ is the answer here. ‘Much less’ is the answer here.”
— Sallie Krawcheck, former CFO of Citigroup, discussing the need for simplicity in financial disclosures in a video interview with CNNMoney anchor Poppy Harlow. Krawcheck gets personal here: Six weeks ago she refinanced her home and encountered “mind-boggling” paperwork, she says. The financial-services industry, she notes, “had high returns on complexity for years.” Complexity bred profitability–and confusion for consumers and investors.
A champion for the individual investor since her early days as an analyst (who covered the financial-services industry), Krawcheck seems, in this video interview, tempted by the idea of a job in the Obama administration. If she went to Washington, she’d presumably take a key post in the area of regulation/investor protection. But she has three children in school in New York City, so a move would be a big deal.
Meanwhile, she’s been rumored to be a candidate to run the U.S. Wealth management unit at UBS. That’s unlikely–too close to her last job at Citigroup.–Jessica Shambora
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