More than a year after the onset of the financial crisis, three things are apparent: Congress has not passed any financial reform legislation (except for credit card rules); the more time passes, the more Wall Street objects to the prospect of any meaningful controls of its operations; and the legislation that has so far progressed in Congress is not commensurate with the scale of the crisis Wall Street caused.
Today, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) kick starts the regulatory reform process in the Senate. We are particularly pleased that he has proposed a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), with powers to monitor practices of small banks and a strong role for states to go beyond the federal regulatory floor to protect their citizens. A strong CFPA would have protected consumers from the predatory loans and abusive practices of the past decade – and, thereby, lessened the severity of the financial crisis.
We look forward to working with Chairman Dodd and members of the Senate to adopt the strong regulations needed to rein in Wall Street abuses. We know, of course, that Wall Street and the big banks will leverage their
