Adani CFO calls US banking crisis a 3rd Enron moment

Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder 'Robbie 'Shangha took a jibe at former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers over the current banking turmoil in America and called it the country's 3rd Enron moment Policy leaders need to be clear and decisive about what's going to happen to their money in large, medium or small banks. Summers said they could do that within their existing authorities, referring to the banking crisis set off by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Summers urged current Secretary Janet Yellen and other top US regulators to pledge that they will back the uninsured deposits in banks that fail in the next year, an important move that could help build confidence amid the current turmoil.

Summers was speaking after Yellen called a date for an unscheduled meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which includes Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other top regulators. The gathering comes in the face of continued banking strains in the US and around the world, with Germany s Deutsche Bank AG in focus on Friday.

In a tweet from Lawrence H. Summers, Singh said: "In your own words, America's 3rd Enron moment Summers is a Charles W. Eliot University professor and President Emeritus at Harvard. He was the secretary of the Treasury for former US President Clinton and the Director of the NEC for former US President Obama.

In a recent interview by Summers last month, Singh's Enron jibe was a throwback to a Bloomberg interview in which he said, We haven't talked about it on the show, but there has been a possible Enron moment in India. He was referring to US short-seller Hindenburg Research accusing Adani Group of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens - charges that the company has denied. Hindenburg's Jan. 24 report eroded more than $100 billion in the value of listed Adani shares.

Enron was one of the largest energy companies in the world, but its executives engaged in a complex accounting scheme to hide losses and inflate profits, which led to the collapse of the company and the loss of billions of dollars for investors and employees.

The scandal shook the public confidence in corporate America and led to increased scrutiny of financial reporting and accounting practices, as well as the passage of new laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to prevent similar abuses in the future.

Even though Singh didn't specify, America's second Enron moment could be the systemic crisis that swept through markets in 2008, taking down Lehman Brothers and prompting government bailouts of large financial institutions.

This triggered concerns among investors about other potential risks and resulted in a sell-off in banking stocks.

The incidents have triggered fears among investors about other potential risks that could be lurking in the banking system. The resulting panic resulted in a sell off of banking stocks and other financial assets, with investors seeking safer havens for their money.

The collapse of these banks has had ripple effects across the industry. The Credit Suisse Group AG was one of the hardest hit, and faced a lot of challenges in its efforts to recover from the crisis. UBS Group AG stepped in to acquire the beleaguered bank in order to prevent a more severe financial meltdown.