Consumer Protection
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The Hill
Wall Street should stop trying to gut financial reform
By Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) - 05/21/12 01:22 PM ET
Corporate settlement policy unlikely to be changed by Congress
5/17/2012
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WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers showed little support on Thursday for tinkering with a regulatory policy of settling cases without requiring defendants to admit to misconduct.
Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters sent the following letter to Rep. Paul Ryan, commending him on his strong stance in favor of the concepts expressed in the "Volcker Rule." In addition, Rep. Waters asked him to join her in the effort to ensure transparent and workable implementation of the rule. The full text of the letter is below:
Chairman Paul Ryan
Committee on the Budget
U.S. House of Representatives
207 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Ryan:
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Congresswoman Waters (CA), Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, today led 15 of her colleagues in the House of Representatives, renewing her call for U.S. bank regulators to publicly release information regarding the steps that mortgage servicers are taking to prevent illegal foreclosure practices.
Opening Statement & Amendment Statements
Opening
Mr. Chairman, I am deeply, deeply opposed to H.R. 1315, which would decrease the threshold needed for the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to override regulations issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from a 2/3 super-majority, to a simple majority, and would exclude the CFPB from voting.
Honestly, I have to ask if my Republican colleagues at all remember the utter failures of our banking regulators leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.
By Kevin Gosztola
A hearing titled, "Legislative Proposals to Address the Negative Consequences of the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Provisions," was held today. Focused on proposed legislation from Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), the hearing looked at how to "improve" the Dodd-Frank Act by "preserving" the internal reporting mechanisms or processes that companies have setup for whistleblowers (e.g. hotlines).
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress recognized that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis.
Prior to Dodd-Frank, the inducements for whistleblowers to step forward were inadequate when balanced against the tremendous countervailing social and economic disincentives.
by Kate Shepherd
House Republicans on Wednesday took aim at a whistleblower provision of a recent bank reform law, part of a broader attempt to limit the impact of the legislation.
Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican, introduced draft legislation at a House Committee on Financial Services subcommittee hearing Wednesday that would require employees to report fraud to their employers before they can receive a monetary reward for reporting it to Securities and Exchange Commission. Read earlier item on whistleblower provision.