Financial Reform Act

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer

Protection Act

The House Financial Services Committee has responded to the nation’s financial

crisis by crafting a comprehensive set of measures that will modernize America’s

financial regulations and hold Wall Street accountable. Once signed into law, this

package of reforms will work together to address the myriad causes – from predatory

lending to unregulated derivatives – that led to last year’s meltdown. The Wall Street

Reform and Consumer Protection Act includes the following major provisions:

Consumer Protections: Creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA),

a new, independent federal agency solely devoted to protecting Americans from

unfair and abusive financial products and services.

Financial Stability Council: Creates an inter-agency oversight council that will

identify and regulate financial firms that are so large, interconnected, or risky that

their collapse would put the entire financial system at risk. These systemically risky

firms will be subject to heightened oversight, standards, and regulation.

Dissolution Authority and Ending “Too Big to Fail”: Establishes an orderly

process for dismantling large, failing financial institutions like AIG or Lehman

Brothers in a way that ends bailouts, protects taxpayers, and prevents contagion to the

rest of the financial system.

Executive Compensation: Gives shareholders a “say on pay” – an advisory vote on

pay practices including executive compensation and golden parachutes. It also

enables regulators to ban inappropriate or imprudently risky compensation practices,

and it requires financial firms to disclose any compensation structures that include

incentive-based elements.

Investor Protections: Strengthens the SEC’s powers so that it can better protect

investors and regulate the nation’s securities markets. It responds to the failures to

detect the Madoff and Stanford Financial frauds by ordering a study of the entire

securities industry that will identify needed reforms and force the SEC and other

entities to further improve investor protection.

Regulation of Derivatives: Regulates, for the first time ever, the over-the-counter

(OTC) derivatives marketplace. Under the bill, all standardized swap transactions

between dealers and “major swap participants” would have to be cleared and traded

on an exchange or electronic platform. The bill defines a major swap participant as

anyone that maintains a substantial net position in swaps, exclusive of hedging for

commercial risk, or whose positions create such significant exposure to others that it

requires monitoring.

Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending: Would incorporate the tough

mortgage reform and anti-predatory lending bill the House passed earlier this year.

The legislation outlaws many of the egregious industry practices that marked the

subprime lending boom, and it would ensure that mortgage lenders make loans that

benefit the consumer. It would establish a simple standard for all home loans:

institutions must ensure that borrowers can repay the loans they are sold.

Reform of Credit Rating Agencies: Addresses the role that credit rating agencies

played in the economic crisis, and takes strong steps to reduce conflicts of interest,

reduce market reliance on credit rating agencies, and impose a liability standard on

the agencies.

Hedge Fund, Private Equity and Private Pools of Capital Registration: Fills a

regulatory hole that allows hedge funds and their advisors to escape any and all

regulation. This bill requires almost all advisers to private pools of capital to register

with the SEC, and they will be subject to systemic risk regulation by the Financial

Stability regulator.

Office of Insurance: Creates a Federal Insurance Office that will monitor all aspects

of the insurance industry, including identifying issues or gaps in the regulation of

insurers that could contribute to a systemic crisis and undermine the entire financial

system.

Financial Services Committee Debate Information

Total Financial Reform markup time: Over 50 hours of debate

Amendments Totals-

120 Republican Amendments Considered

46 Roll Call Votes on Republican Amendments

51 Republican Amendments Accepted

134 Democratic Amendments Considered

11 Roll Call Votes on Democratic Amendments

111 Democratic Amendments Accepted

24 Bipartisan Amendments Considered

3 Roll Call Votes on Bipartisan Amendments

21 Bipartisan Amendments Accepted

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