House Passes Financial Regulation Bill
12-15-2009 | Source: emii.com
On Friday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R 4173), a bill that would overhaul and modernize financial regulation. The bill addresses the causes of the credit crisis and aims to protect taxpayers from future bailouts.
The bill was introduced by Representative
Barney Frank (D-MA) and includes taxpayer protections such as creating the
Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect Americans from “unfair and abusive financial products and services,” and introducing the
Financial Stability Council to oversee risky financial firms and prevent “too-big-to-fail” scenarios. The legislation includes details on “an orderly process for dismantling large, failing financial institutions.”
Other key provisions include requiring companies to give shareholders power in determining executive compensation, and reforms in both mortgage lending and credit rating industries, as well as new investor protections to further guard consumers. Finally, the bill includes new regulations for derivatives, as well as hedge funds and private equity firms, and would create the Federal Insurance Office to regulate the insurance market more closely.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill that would boost government agencies and benefit programs - such as Medicare and Medicaid - by $447 billion and $650 billion respectively, reports
MarketWatch. The agency money is budgeted for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2010. The bill will now go to President
Barack Obama for his signature.
Click here to read more about the bill.
Click here to read the report on the Senate bill from MarketWatch.