Obama Administration Unveils Financial Regulatory Reform Plan
Posted by Gregg D. Killoren on June 17, 2009
The White House today released an 85-page legislative proposal that offers sweeping reform of the federal regulatory structure of the financial industry. Among the highlights are:
- A new Financial Services Oversight Council of financial regulators to identify systemic risks, with additional authority for the Federal Reserve Board to regulate systemically important firms, even if they do not own banks;
- A new National Bank Supervisor to oversee all federally chartered banks, along with elimination of the federal bank charter;
- A new Consumer Financial Protection Agency charged with the regulation of consumer and investor products across the financial industry, regardless of whether such products are part of a bank—this agency would set standards for such products as mortgages and credit cards.
Since I have not advocated investment in the financial industry, I won’t dwell on this further—should it become law in the future, then there will be additional analysis. In the meantime, the legislative proposal is available on the Treasury Department’s Financial Stability website, click here to go the site to view the proposal (labelled “White Paper: Financial Regulatory Reform on the site) plus additional fact sheets.
