FYI..

Your opinion?

TMT

Sen Dodd's bank super-cop may be doomed: source
By Kevin Drawbaugh Kevin Drawbaugh
Fri Feb 26, 10:21 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bold proposal by Senate Banking Committee
Chairman Christopher Dodd to set up a single supervisor for U.S. banks
looks doomed, said a source familiar with Senate committee discussions
on Friday.

The Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, which Dodd
proposed in November, likely will not be included in revised
legislation expected to be released next week by the committee, said
the source, cautioning plans could change.

Instead, the Federal Reserve may keep its role as overseer of large
bank holding companies, and the Comptroller of the Currency's office
may remain in place, said the source.

At the same time, a document obtained by Reuters on Friday showed Dodd
is circulating a plan to make President Barack Obama's proposed
financial consumer watchdog a division of the Treasury Department,
rather than an independent agency.

The document, said by a financial industry source to have originated
from Dodd's office, proposed renaming the watchdog the Bureau of
Financial Protection, giving it a presidentially appointed director, a
dedicated budget, rule-writing authority and wide powers.

Dodd's office could not be reached immediately to comment on the
document.

Obama in mid-2009 proposed an independent U.S. Consumer Financial
Protection Agency to regulate mortgages, credit cards and other
financial products. But it ran into stiff resistance from Republicans
and lobbyists for banks and Wall Street.

In recent weeks, Dodd has discussed a range of possible compromises on
the watchdog proposal. The Bureau of Financial Protection approach has
yet to win support of Republicans, said a financial services industry
source close to Senate talks.

Both developments -- on the banking supervision agency and the
consumer watchdog -- could mark turning points in the Senate's long
discussions about regulatory reform following the worst U.S. financial
crisis since the 1930s.

If the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration that Dodd
proposed is dropped, the bill he hopes to bring to the Senate floor
soon would more closely align with one approved in December by the
U.S. House of Representatives, simplifying House-Senate reconciliation
of their measures.

But abandoning the FIRA would also mark a retreat from an ambitious
plan to consolidate a patchwork of bank regulators that was widely
criticized after the crisis for gaps in oversight and narrowness of
vision in monitoring the industry.

The FIRA would have streamlined the bank oversight duties of the Fed,
the Comptroller, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and other now
separate agencies.

The Fed in recent weeks has pushed hard to preserve its role as
supervisor of the nation's largest bank holding companies such as
Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N).

As plans stand now, the Fed may keep that job, but be stripped of its
supervision of state-chartered banks in the Fed system. Responsibility
for those banks would shift to the FDIC, which already examines many
other state-chartered banks that are not in the Fed system, the source
said.

Dodd's plan for closing the Office of Thrift Supervision, which
regulates thrift institutions, appears to be unchanged. The House bill
calls for closing the OTS, as well.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; editing by Carol Bishopric)

On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:26:22 -0800 (PST), Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

FYI..

Your opinion?

TMT

Sen Dodd's bank super-cop may be doomed: source
By Kevin Drawbaugh Kevin Drawbaugh
Fri Feb 26, 10:21 pm ET
=======
More "Punch-n-Judy" show for the great unwashed masses.

Senator Dodd is in the pockets of the banks and other financial
institutions like the large majority of Congressmen. This
appears to be, in most cases, because the Congressmen associate
with and mainly know "the moneyed classes," and the long-term
inhalation of Potomac "swamp gas," rather than any actual "bill
of sale."

As Winston Churchill observed as First Lord of the Admiralty
prior to WW1 in reference to a successful surprise attack by the
Imperial German High Seas Fleet on the British Home Fleet: "Our
task is not to see that they won't do it, our task is to see they
can't do it."

If the nation is to avoid repeated and increasingly severe "great
recessions" it is imperative the two major safeguards enacted as
a result of the Pecora Commission investigation of the causes of
the "Great Depression" be not only reinstated but reinforced to
recognize "improvements" in financial organization and products.
A third new safeguard must be enacted to protect against the new
threat of "too big to fail" transnational corporations, outside
the oversight and control of any national government, but able to
bring sovereign government down, e.g. Greece and Goldman-Sachs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission
http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/sensep/
{Note that the same business names are again coming up.
Revocation of the corporate charters and desolution/liquidation
of the companies may be the only solution.}

As bullet points:

(1) Immediate enactment of a new "super" Glass-Steagall-Volker to
again separate taxpayer insured depository institutions, direct
through FDIC, etc. or indirect through BPGC, from institutions
that engage in proprietary trading and speculation is required.
The general rule is that privatization of gains and socialization
of losses is not acceptable.

(2) Immediate repeal of the _Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Modernization Act of 2000_ with an act to not only allow but
require the oversight and regulation of the creation and sale of
"derivatives," but also again regulate commodity trading and
traders, particularly requiring proof of financial
responsibility. The general principal is that any financial
instrument traded in interstate commerce in the United States
must be subject to U.S. jurisdiction and oversight.

(3) Absolute size caps on both market share and capital limiting
organizations to "small enough to fail" must be enacted. Any
exceptions should result in "public utility" type oversight with
public members on the board of directions, limitations on ROA,
and regulator approval of executive compensation, large
investments, fees and charges, etc. It may also be desirable to
require that financial institutions such as investment banks and
brokerages must be organized as partnerships with
personal/individual liability rather than as corporations with
limited liability. The general principal is that in a free
market economy [which can be very different from a capitalist
economy, e.g. cartels], a company must not only be free to
succeed, it must also be free to fail.

==All three of these requirements are however worthless if
personal accountability is not enforced through draconian
criminal as well as civil penalties, with disgorgement of any
gains obtains as the result of violations.==

A recent example is the 150 million dollar fine levied by the SEC
against BoA for misleading stockholders on their acquisition of
Merrill. The stockholders took it on the shin in the first place
because of the excessive valuation of Merrill and the Merrill
bonuses, and they took it on the shins again when the
*CORPORATION* was fined 150 million $US. [The taxpayers are
feeling the wood also.] None of the BoA officers or directors
paid a single cent in fines or served a day in jail, and the few
that were canned, got golden parachutes.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...n-woolner.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2420092820100224
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...atestheadlines

http://dnainfo.com/20100204/manhatta...-ceo-ken-lewis
http://wdef.com/news/bank_of_america...harges/02/2010


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

On Feb 27, 4:26*pm, Too_Many_Tools wrote:
FYI..

Your opinion?

TMT

I have an opinion, but plan on keeping it. Get your own opinion.

Dan

On Feb 27, 10:26*am, Too_Many_Tools wrote:
FYI..

Your opinion?

TMT

Sen Dodd's bank super-cop may be doomed: source
By Kevin Drawbaugh Kevin Drawbaugh
Fri Feb 26, 10:21 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bold proposal by Senate Banking Committee
Chairman Christopher Dodd to set up a single supervisor for U.S. banks
looks doomed, said a source familiar with Senate committee discussions
on Friday.

The Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, which Dodd
proposed in November, likely will not be included in revised
legislation expected to be released next week by the committee, said
the source, cautioning plans could change.

Instead, the Federal Reserve may keep its role as overseer of large
bank holding companies, and the Comptroller of the Currency's office
may remain in place, said the source.

At the same time, a document obtained by Reuters on Friday showed Dodd
is circulating a plan to make President Barack Obama's proposed
financial consumer watchdog a division of the Treasury Department,
rather than an independent agency.

The document, said by a financial industry source to have originated
from Dodd's office, proposed renaming the watchdog the Bureau of
Financial Protection, giving it a presidentially appointed director, a
dedicated budget, rule-writing authority and wide powers.

Dodd's office could not be reached immediately to comment on the
document.

Obama in mid-2009 proposed an independent U.S. Consumer Financial
Protection Agency to regulate mortgages, credit cards and other
financial products. But it ran into stiff resistance from Republicans
and lobbyists for banks and Wall Street.

In recent weeks, Dodd has discussed a range of possible compromises on
the watchdog proposal. The Bureau of Financial Protection approach has
yet to win support of Republicans, said a financial services industry
source close to Senate talks.

Both developments -- on the banking supervision agency and the
consumer watchdog -- could mark turning points in the Senate's long
discussions about regulatory reform following the worst U.S. financial
crisis since the 1930s.

If the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration that Dodd
proposed is dropped, the bill he hopes to bring to the Senate floor
soon would more closely align with one approved in December by the
U.S. House of Representatives, simplifying House-Senate reconciliation
of their measures.

But abandoning the FIRA would also mark a retreat from an ambitious
plan to consolidate a patchwork of bank regulators that was widely
criticized after the crisis for gaps in oversight and narrowness of
vision in monitoring the industry.

The FIRA would have streamlined the bank oversight duties of the Fed,
the Comptroller, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and other now
separate agencies.

The Fed in recent weeks has pushed hard to preserve its role as
supervisor of the nation's largest bank holding companies such as
Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N).

As plans stand now, the Fed may keep that job, but be stripped of its
supervision of state-chartered banks in the Fed system. Responsibility
for those banks would shift to the FDIC, which already examines many
other state-chartered banks that are not in the Fed system, the source
said.

Dodd's plan for closing the Office of Thrift Supervision, which
regulates thrift institutions, appears to be unchanged. The House bill
calls for closing the OTS, as well.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; editing by Carol Bishopric)

The saga continues....

Note what Party wanting no changes.

TMT


Key Republicans reject Dodd's consumer agency plan
Sat Feb 27, 8:19 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Key Republican members of the Senate Banking
committee rejected its chairman's proposal to place a consumer
protection agency within the Treasury Department, sources familiar
with the situation said on Saturday.

In an attempt to garner Republican support, Senate banking chairman
Christopher Dodd proposed making a consumer financial protection
agency a division of Treasury instead of an independent agency.

But the panel's top Republican, Richard Shelby, and fellow Republican
Bob Corker have rejected Dodd's proposal as a non-starter, the sources
said. Their rejection is a setback for Dodd, who is trying to craft a
bipartisan bill to reform financial regulation.

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai, editing by Philip Barbara)