A group of technology and financial industry executives will face a bipartisan firestorm Thursday during the first congressional hearing on the GameStop stock controversy. The leaders of major companies at the center of last month’s wild stock market volatility will find few allies on the House Financial Services Committee as members in both parties plan to hold their feet to fire. Executives from Robinhood, hedge fund Citadel, Melvin Capital and Reddit will seek to defend the heavily scrutinized ways they dealt with a surge in purchases of shares of GameStop and other struggling companies organized by an online community of traders. ADVERTISEMENT The GameStop frenzy raised serious questions about stock market regulation, the rise of retail trading websites and Wall Street transparency. The hearing may also lay the groundwork for further congressional investigations or attempts to impose tougher rules on hedge funds and trading platforms. But financial policy experts say those concerns are likely to take a backseat to big tech backlash, mistrust of Wall Street and other politically potent grievances when lawmakers get their crack at the executives. “The hearing will make for good TV,” wrote Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist at investment bank Stiefel, in a Tuesday research note. “In terms of figuring out what if any policy changes might result from the episode, we would pay more attention to the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing on the nomination of Gary Gensler Gary Gensler Five questions hanging over Thursday's GameStop hearing House gears up for first GameStop stock hearing On The Money: Biden calls Dems, urges big COVID bill | Biden's SEC pick sidelined as GameStop drama unfolds | Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO MORE to run the Securities and Exchange Commission since the SEC will take the lead in making any policy changes.” The SEC — Wall Street’s top cop — is locked in a partisan 2-2 split among its ...
