The U.S. Senate has approved the financial regulation bill (59 votes for and 39 against) performing one of the objectives of President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama acknowledged that “Americans should not pay for the mistakes of Wall Street. Our goal is not to punish the banks, but to protect American citizens,” Obama acknowledged. So, four Republicans, 53 Democrats and two independents joined to pass what is considered the biggest reform in the system of regulation of U.S. institutions since the Great Depression of the 30s.
The Democratic majority leader Harry Reid in the Senate said that “the Financial-Bill that passed today (Thursday night) contains a message for Wall Street… make it clear that they can not return to bet with other people’s money.” He tells them that the days when companies were “too large to permit collapse are over,” he explained.
Republicans have sought to delay and soften the project in recent months in the negotiations and discussions behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, saying it was a government move to tighten the purse to the private sector. This law will give more power to the Federal Reserve as a chief of police to possible risky investment decisions taken by banks. Meanwhile, also creates a new independent entity, Office of Consumer Financial Protection, which will establish the rules for mortgages, student loans and credit cards to prevent abuse.
Among the key points of the reform, which strengthens the supervisory role of state agencies and provides more checks on Wall Street, are the following:
Financial regulation. The rule creates a single regulatory board and gives the Federal Reserve new powers on major financial companies.
Crisis Management. The law focuses the regulatory authority and gives the government more powers for intervention, fragmentation and/or liquidation of banks or financial institutions to collapse, without mechanisms to rescue at the expense of taxpayers.
Financial stability. The new Supervisory Board of the Financial Stability Forum, comprised of various regulatory agencies and chaired by the Treasury secretary, will monitor the risks caused by large and complex financial institutions. This nine-member board may recommend that the Federal Reserve to impose stricter rules on capital, or fragmentation of signatures.
Consumer Protection. An Office of Consumer Financial Protection to monitor banks with more than 10,000 million in assets.
Derivatives. Places limits on the operations that banks can do with “derivatives”, such as packages of mortgage insurance and default swaps to which they blame for much of the financial crisis.
High-risk funds. The “hedge funds” that operate more than 100 million dollars will be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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