Barney Frank not too teed off over bank sponsorship for golf tourneys

Corporate sponsorships of golf tournaments and honoring other contracts is okay for bailed-out corporations, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said, backing off previous harsh criticism of Northern Trust Bank for having sponsored a tournament.

“No one is saying they shouldn’t sponsor golf tournaments and honor existing contracts,” Frank told GolfWorld. “It’s the spending on luxury hotels and limousines they should not be doing. Now, if they weren’t getting federal money, it would be up to them to decide if that’s how they want to spend their money.”

Frank blasted Northern Trust after it had sponsored the Northern Trust Open despite receiving $1.5 billion in unsolicited bailout funds from the government. The bank has since returned those funds.

“I am skeptical of the marketing value of some of this stuff,” Frank said. “But I do separate out the sponsorship from the entertaining that goes on around these events. That’s what I have problems with.”

Frank said those trips are meant more to coddle the egos of the bank’s executives than to market the company.

The interview was facilitated by the Professional Golf Association (PGA), the Wall Street Journal Reported. PGA Commissioner Tom Finchem had reached out to Frank in “the beginning of a dialogue on the broader role of sponsorships”