After a year-and-a-half of pure turmoil, many Americans have suffered at the hands of mismanagement and greed on Wall Street, prompting Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) has released a financial reform draft. The draft, released on Monday evening, includes sweeping regulatory changes that will be aimed at avoiding any future collapses of the financial system.
Proposed Changes to the Financial System
Dodd’s proposal made huge financial news as it could create a major shift in the financial system and possibly change the economy for the better. Here is a list of some of his suggestions:
- Create a new consumer regulator: His first suggestion was to create a consumer regulatory agency that would be housed inside the Federal Reserve. The regulator would ensure consumers get fair opportunities when dealing with mortgage lenders and credit card issuers. It would have the ability to examine and enforce consumer rules at mortgage banks and financial firms that have more than $10 billion in assets. Also, the bill would give regulators the choice to review products and set regulations on payday and auto loans, something consumer advocates don’t like. The agency would be led by a presidentially-appointed director. On the whole, banks and Republicans don’t like this idea.
- Wall Street bailout prevention: The bill would push banks and financial firms to strengthen their capital cushions so that they won’t be in danger of failing. The cushion would come from a tax on the largest financial firms to create a resolution fund of $50 billion. Also, he proposed a new way of taking down giant companies by giving them a special bankruptcy proceeding that would allow them to wind down more quickly than under the existing system.
- Banking supervision: After so many banks failed in 2009, Dodd and his committee decided that a new system was necessary to supervise them. They suggested having the regulator oversee the largest banks with more than $50 billion in assets then give the FDIC new powers to regulate smaller state-chartered banks. And like in the House bill, Dodd suggested merging two bank regulating agencies to create a stronger overseer for savings and loan and mortgage lenders.
- Early warning system: Dodd proposed to create a nine-member advisory oversight council of regulators who would be responsible for sounding an alarm before companies would find themselves in a position to trigger a financial crisis. This would hopefully prevent failures like those of Lehman Brothers.
- Companies trade on their own funds: The bill also aims at prohibiting financial firms from owning hedge funds or participating in trading on their own accounts.
- Shining light on different accounts: The committee also proposed shining a brighter light on different kinds of complex financial products then passing these derivatives on to clearinghouses to pinpoint the value of such trades.
Dodd Hopes for Immediate Review of Bill
Dodd hopes the banking committee will consider the bill next week and vote before the next congressional recess starting on March 29. He wants the regulatory overhaul to make it to the Senate floor before the last week of May where midterm elections could work against it to complicate getting a final agreement.
While the House has already passed its own version of a regulatory bill, members of Senate don’t think Dodd’s bill will be ready during his timeline. Some think his 1,300 page document will take much longer than a week to work through.
After what happened with everyone’s money in 2009 and the end of 2008, one can only hope that the changes suggested by the Senate and the House could make a difference to the innocent bystanders. We can only hope this financial news will create an agenda that will help improve our economy and prevent it from collapse in the future.