Apollo and Athene’s business practices raise questions for policymakers and regulators across the financial system.
FHLB System: Government-sponsored Piggy Bank for Apollo?
While retail workers like those at Apollo-owned Cardenas Markets face a housing crisis, Apollo-owned Athene is using the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines to boost its investment income. Read more
DOL: Modernizing Guidance on Pension Risk Transfers
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has joined the American Federal of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and sister unions in calling on the Department of Labor to modernize Interpretive Bulletin 95-1, its guidance to pension fiduciaries. Read more
FDIC: Is Apollo Preying on America’s Banking Crisis?
Apollo is practiced at the art of acquiring assets of failed financial institutions. In fact, the company marks its origin with deals to buy bonds from the failed Executive Life Insurance Company in 1991.[1]
In the midst of the recent banking crisis, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan was quoted by the Financial Times about its interest in FDIC assets from failing banks:
“’The opportunity for us is to continue to be a conduit for investors to take investment-grade type, safe yield opportunities from the banking system to the investment marketplace to maintain diversification of our financial system,’ Marc Rowan, Apollo’s chief executive and co-founder, told the Financial Times.”[2]
Apollo CEO Marc Rowan
Mr. Rowan sounds like a statesman here, but Apollo’s strategy is to profit from the FDIC’s bank seizures and distress in the banking industry. Read more
[1] https://www.apollo.com/about-apollo/our-history 1991. New York Times, Washington Hopes ‘Vulture’ Investors Will Buy Bad Assets, 2/10/2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/economy/11react.html ; also, Wall Street Journal, Apollo Has Difficulty Landing Real-Estate Funds, 2/15/2012. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204062704577223313293359528 ; Resolution Trust Corporation was formed to resolve the Savings & Loan crisis according to: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/resolution-trust-corporation.asp
[2] Financial Times, Buyout titans weigh purchases from Silicon Valley Bank loan book, 3/14/2023 https://www.ft.com/content/43f8e0ca-f0fb-4ecb-b568-a242398643bc