Financial Regulatory Forum

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – The big U.S. government agencies in charge of policing banks and markets, despite being excoriated over the severe 2008-2009 financial crisis, have successfully dodged a major structural shake-up.

While Congress may yet clamp down on the financial industry from Wall Street to Main Street, a top-to-bottom overhaul of the nation’s regulatory apparatus — which seemed like a certainty a year and a half ago — is not going to happen.

As political reality has tempered reform proposals, plans to reconfigure a patchwork bureaucracy stitched together over decades have faded from view, with just one agency closure still on the negotiating table.

Only the Office of Thrift Supervision — smallest and newest of the big seven agencies — is likely to be closed with regulatory reform bills in both the Senate and the House of Representatives targeting it for shutdown.

Otherwise, thousands of workers will stay in place at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other agencies ensconced in stately, federal buildings across Washington.

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The beat walked by a proposed super-cop for banks is shrinking in the latest financial regulation reforms being debated in the U.S. Senate, said sources familiar with committee negotiations on Thursday.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd has called for the formation of a Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration (FIRA) to replace a current patchwork system that includes four bank supervisors in Washington.

But Dodd and other lawmakers, seeking compromise on this and other issues, are revising the FIRA proposal, said sources who asked not to be named because negotiations continue.

   By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) – As the biggest U.S. banks clamor to defeat Congressional measures that could break up their firms or slap a big tax on their transactions, another costly proposal is quietly gaining steam.

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   By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is poised to release a draft bill on financial regulatory reform that meets many of President Barack Obama’s core goals, but it is unclear if it will gain any Republican support, an administration official said on Tuesday.

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   By Karey Wutkowski
CHICAGO, Oct 26 (Reuters) – A top U.S. bank regulator said on Monday that there is “very real concern” that some large financial firms that have received massive taxpayer bailouts could be harmed by the rulings of the Obama administration’s pay czar.Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said pay czar Kenneth Feinberg has a difficult challenge to both rein in outsized paychecks at the seven firms he has jurisdiction over, while not being so harsh that top performers leave the companies.

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WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Two major bank industry groups said on Tuesday they oppose a congressional proposal to consolidate federal banking supervision into one regulator. The American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America jointly sent a letter to lawmakers saying that maintaining multiple federal regulators provides a helpful range of regulatory perspectives and is a healthy check against any one regulator neglecting its duties.

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By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – A senior U.S. Democratic senator said on Tuesday he is moving forward with his effort to consolidate bank supervision into a single federal regulator, despite criticism from current bank regulators who do not want to lose power.

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By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – U.S. banking regulators proposed on Tuesday that banks prepay three years of fees to help cover the rising cost of bank failures, now put at $100 billion through 2013.

Banks would prepay $45 billion of regular quarterly assessments under the plan, but would not have to recognize the hit to their earnings until the fees are normally due.

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By Karey Wutkowski and Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Powerful U.S. lawmaker Barney Frank bowed to some of the financial industry’s demands and softened parts of his bill to create an agency to protect consumers from risky financial products, according to a copy of the draft bill first obtained by Reuters on Friday.

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By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – U.S. bank regulators plan to meet next week to propose options for replenishing the insurance fund used to safeguard bank deposits, including tapping a line of credit with the Treasury Department.

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