Kara Scannell is a CNN reporter based in Washington, D.C, she joined the network in 2017. Most recently, Scannell was a US senior finance correspondent for the Financial Times. Scannell was previously the US investigations correspondent for the Financial Times, reporting on tax evasion schemes, cyber security breaches and white-collar crime. Scannell also wrote extensively about law enforcement investigations into financial institutions for their role in the credit crisis and covered several insider trading trials.

Scannell joined the FT in 2010 from the Wall Street Journal's Washington DC bureau where she focused on financial regulation. Scannell revealed lapses in oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission leading up to the financial crisis and how the agency systematically missed red flags that could have uncovered the Madoff Ponzi scheme. She also spent years as the federal courts reporter covering criminal trials including the Merrill Lynch bankers involved in the Enron accounting fraud and Martha Stewart's criminal trial

Scannell began her journalism career at CNNfn and while in college freelanced at 1010WINS, the all news New York radio station.

Scannell won the 2015 Society of American Business Editors and Writers award for breaking news for the FT's coverage of the flash crash trader. She was a member of the Wall Street Journal team that was a finalist in the National Affairs category for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. A native New Yorker, Scannell holds a BA in media studies and economics from Fordham University.