Financial Regulatory Forum

By Ted Knutson, Complinet

As Democratic U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd prepares to leave office, Republicans are threatening to chip away at what may be his biggest legislative accomplishment: the Wall Street regulation overhaul he helped steer through Congress this year as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. It was the biggest fix to the financial regulatory system in 70 years, and Republicans emboldened by November election gains are looking to deny regulators the extra money they want to enforce it, and to delay seating a head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Dodd said in an interview with ThomsonReuters unit Complinet that the damage to a “real darn good bill” could be real, but not complete. In his half-hour interview last Friday, Dodd looked ahead to the future of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and back at the two-year process that led to its creation.

Complinet: How much would it damage regulatory reform if Republicans block budget increases for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that say they need to implement it? (more…)

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives approved the biggest changes in financial regulation since the Great Depression on Friday, marking a win for the Obama administration and top Democrats in Congress.

The sweeping bill, which will have to be reconciled with any measure the slower-moving Senate might eventually approve, aims to safeguard the financial system and ward off future crises of the type that punished the nation in the past year with its deepest recession since the 1930s.

The House voted 223-202 to pass the 1,279-page bill, which was hammered out in the months since last year’s crisis convinced Democrats of an urgent need for reform. All of the chamber’s Republicans and 27 Democrats voted against bill.

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives was expected to approve the biggest changes in financial regulation since the Great Depression on Friday, marking a win for the Obama administration.

With the Senate due to debate reforms well into next year, the House could complete its legislative work by passing a 1,279-page bill that has been hammered out in the months since 2008′s financial crisis.

The bill still faces potential amendments on the House floor, including one that would gut a key provision — the proposed creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) — and another to change mortgage bankruptcy law.