WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Friday neared a breakthrough in their historic rewrite of financial regulations as they agreed to tough new limits on banks’ trading activity and floated a compromise on derivatives.

As the clock hit midnight, Democrats resolved one of the most stubborn sticking points in the bill and appeared close to resolving the other.

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers were locked
in an impasse over derivatives on Thursday as they struggled to
finish their historic rewrite of U.S. financial regulations.

As a negotiating session entered its 12th hour, Democratic
lawmakers and officials from the Democratic administration of
President Barack Obama struggled to find common ground on a
controversial proposal to force banks to spin off their
lucrative swaps-dealing operations.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives team negotiating derivatives reforms is attempting to tighten a debated loophole that would allow some companies to avoid new rules for the $615 trillion over-the-counter market, according to a document obtained on Wednesday.

House negotiators offered a new approach to the so-called “end-user exemption” provided to manufacturers and other non-financial companies who want to avoid the extra costs associated with clearing and trading swaps — one of 110 changes proposed to the derivatives section of the bill as a Thursday deadline looms.

WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) – Final Wall Street reform
legislation will include a controversial plan from Senator
Blanche Lincoln to insulate banks from risky swap dealing, but
only after it is further “clarified,” aides said on Thursday.

A deal is being worked out, with terms still under
negotiation by lawmakers and the Obama administration, said
congressional aides and someone close to the talks.

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – Democrats were working on
Wednesday to bolster a plan that would force big banks to spin
off their swap dealing desks, with backers of Senator Blanche
Lincoln’s controversial proposal aiming to push forward.

In the face of opposition from Wall Street, the Senate
Banking Committee was seeking to tighten Federal Reserve rules
to address concerns some lawmakers have about isolating swap
dealing units from the banks that spin them off, an aide said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Wall Street reform law being written by House and Senate negotiators will include some splitting off of swaps desks from banks, a key House negotiator told Reuters on Tuesday.

Collin Peterson, the House Agriculture Committee chairman and a lead House negotiator on the derivatives portion of the bill, had given little sign until now of his views about limits on bank activity in the $615 trillion swaps market. The limits look increasingly likely to become part of the final bill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Credit rating agencies like Moody’s Corp and Standard & Poor’s hoped to win a reprieve on Tuesday from a proposal that would upend their business model as U.S. lawmakers sat down to craft a final rewrite of financial regulations

Lawmakers from the Senate and the House of Representatives could strip a provision designed to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest between the credit rating agencies and the companies whose debt they rate as they resolve differences between their two Wall Street reform bills.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The resurgent U.S. ethanol industry will use an additional 250 million bushels of corn through the next 15 months, dramatically reducing the corn surplus despite record crops, said the government on Thursday.

Traders said the forecast of higher demand would boost corn prices. They had expected modest reductions in the corn stockpile instead of the Agriculture Department’s large cuts.

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – Some Democratic senators
emerging from closed-door financial reform talks on Wednesday
praised a controversial measure that would require banks to
spin off their lucrative swaps desks.

The measure put forth by Senator Blanche Lincoln is “a
strong provision in the bill,” said Senate Banking Committee
Chairman Christopher Dodd, who three weeks ago had tried to
soften it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Blanche Lincoln faces possible elimination in a Democratic run-off primary in Arkansas on Tuesday, putting at risk her tough stance against the big banks in Wall Street reform.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter held a small lead over Lincoln in polls of likely voters ahead of the vote. Lincoln led in the May 18 primary but did not get an outright majority to claim nomination for a third Senate term.