Wall St CEOs to defend use of bailout to Congress

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The kings of Wall Street will try to soothe the U.S. Congress on Wednesday by defending their use of $176 billion in bank bailout money, but it may be a tough sell, even for the one-time "masters of the universe."

Lawmakers are expected to seize the opportunity presented by a congressional committee hearing on the troubled bailout program to grill the eight bank CEOs scheduled to testify, and to vent rising public anger over the economic crisis.

The chief executives will reply that their institutions have used taxpayer funds responsibly, according to written testimony released by the committee on its Web site.

They will say that they have increased lending since the bailout began, and that they are embracing some reforms being proposed for the badly crippled U.S. financial system.

"Taxpayers want us to manage our expenses carefully, and provide transparency about how we are putting their money to work to restart the economy," Bank of America Corp CEO Kenneth Lewis says in his prepared remarks. "These expectations are appropriate and we are working to meet them."

Toward that end, Lewis says, he and other top bank managers went without bonuses for 2008, while less-senior executives had their 2008 incentive payments cut by an average of 80 percent.

Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase & Co, says in his remarks that he is endorsing a proposal to create a systemic risk regulator to help oversee U.S. markets.

"This would allow us to begin to address some of the underlying weaknesses in our system and fill the gaps in regulation that contributed to the current situation," he says. "We stand ready to work with you on the range of issues confronting the financial services sector and our economy."