We Have Banking Reform

Filed in archive Finance on June 25, 2010

© mrkathika


A conference committee of 43 members of the US House and Senate met all night and finished up at about 6am Friday morning to complete a banking reform bill (the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 ) that will now get voted on by both the houses of Congress, according to a number of sources (CNN, Economic Times, Reuters, Huffington Post).

The session lasted 20 hours, and lawmakers now expect to have the bill on the President's desk for his signature before July 4th.

The push for the bill came as a result of government bailouts of financial institutions (like AIG) which were considered too big to fail and risky practices in the housing market that resulted in huge numbers mortgage failures.

CNN looks at a list of the bill's provisions - including the creation of a consumer protection agency, requirements than lenders verify a borrower's income before making mortgage loans, new powers for the FDIC (including the ability to close financial firms the same way they've closed banks in the past), changes to how individuals access their own credit scores, curbs on executive pay, and much more.

The vote is timely. President Obama meets with the G-20 in Toronto this weekend and financial reform will be a major point of discussion.