Business
Warren asks hedge fund group if it played Argentina bailout role
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked a group representing hedge funds and other asset managers to describe what role, if any, it played in the Trump administration’s deliberations over how to extend US financial support to Argentina during a period of market turmoil.
In a letter addressed to Bryan Corbett, chief executive of the Managed Funds Association, Warren requested information and documents related to the group’s lobbying efforts around a support package for Argentina coordinated by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Bessent said Thursday the US bought Argentine pesos to help prop up the currency and has agreed to provide a $20 billion swap framework with the country’s central bank. “The US Treasury is prepared, immediately, to take whatever exceptional measures are warranted to provide stability to markets,” he said in a social media post.
The bailout offer, to a country with a history of default and devaluation, is aimed at helping Trump’s political ally President Javier Milei notch a win in Oct. 26 midterm elections that will keep his program of drastic economic reforms on track.
But the U.S. lifeline could benefit hedge fund managers while failing to solve Argentina’s long-term problems, according to Warren.
“Twenty billion dollars may not be enough to stanch Argentina’s economic decline on its own, but it could buy time for hedge fund investors to exit their positions without suffering massive losses,” she wrote in the letter. “Given the interests of your members, I am seeking additional information about what role, if any, the Managed Funds Association or its members played in the Trump Administration’s bailout of Argentina’s financial markets.”
Warren is requesting the MFA answer questions related to its interactions with the Trump administration on the Argentina support package as well as the interactions its members might have had.
The information she is seeking includes communications between the association and the Trump administration about the US financial support, investments that the group’s members have in Argentina, and any communications it or its members have had about those positions.
Warren is also seeking copies of communications the association may have sent to its members following Bessent’s initial Sept. 22 announcement of support for Argentina. She is asking the association to reply to her questions by Oct. 22.
The letter has been received by the association and its staffers are reviewing it, an MFA spokesperson said.
Along with the letter, Warren has introduced legislation that would restrict the Trump administration’s ability to use the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund to lend support to Argentina.
The bill would prevent the Treasury from using the ESF to “provide direct or indirect financial support to the country of Argentina, including through the establishment of currency swap lines, the purchase of pesos or sovereign debt of Argentina, or the extension of any credit instrument.”
A clause in the legislation says that any financial contract or instrument entered into before the date of its enactment should be terminated within seven days of its passage into law.
The legislation can be brought up for a vote using a Senate process called unanimous consent. Lawmakers supportive of the measure plan to force a vote on it soon, according to a person familiar with the matter.
