US Senate to introduce draft bill on financial regulation
02 November 2009
The financial Times reports that the bill may complicate the Obama’s administration’s own plan for dealing with future crisis and that may end the chances of a bipartisan law passing this year.
The Financial Times reports that the US Senate is close to producing draft legislation on financial regulation – but in a form that complicates the Obama administration’s own plan for dealing with future crises and that may end the chances of a bipartisan law passing this year.
One senator and several aides said a bill would be introduced “within days” that redrew the regulatory map in a different way to draft laws put forward by the Treasury and the House financial services committee.
In spite of efforts by Barack Obama, US president, to woo Richard Shelby, the lead Republican on the Senate banking committee, people taking part in negotiations from both parties said they were unlikely to agree on a bipartisan draft law.
One person involved with the talks said the week of November 16 had been pencilled in for the mark-up of the bill, which would address derivatives, systemic risk, resolution authority for failing companies and consumer protection.
As currently structured, the bill envisages a consolidation of the four banking regulators, stripping powers from the Federal Reserve and creating a single prudential supervisory body. In systemic risk regulation, the central bank would also lose power to a new council of regulators, in contrast to the administration’s plan to empower the Fed with new authority.
Republicans complain they are being forced into an artificial timetable that is reducing the chances of agreement. People on both sides of the committee, chaired by Chris Dodd, the Democratic senator, say the chances of the law being passed by the year-end, as planned by the administration, are slight.
© Financial Times
