The Department of Justice has repurposed a 24-year-old law, which it is using to bring civil cases against big banks for misdeeds that led to the financial crisis. Now, non-banks could be next.
Congress enacted the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act in 1989 as a tool to pursue banks responsible for the savings and loan crisis. FIRREA established the Resolution Trust Corp., used to shutter hundreds of insolvent thrifts, and created the Office of Thrift Supervision. But it is other aspects of the legislation that have appealed to the Justice Department so many years later.
