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Today the Senate approved the financial overhaul legislation known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173).  Before today's 60 to 39 vote, the legislation was approved by the House of Representatives on June 30th after clearing the House-Senate conference on June 29th.  The legislation must first be signed by President Barack Obama before becoming law.  The signing ceremony is expected the week of July 19th.
 
Click here for the approved legislation.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released an "offer" which is essentially manger's amendment to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from in conference today.  The manger's amendment includes changes to disparate titles in the base text.  

Click here for the text of the manager's amendment.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released "offers" which are essentially amendments to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from in conference on Thursday, June 24.  Today's posting includes both an amendment and summary.  The title to be considered in Thursday's conference is:  

• Title VII of base text: Derivatives.

Click here for the text of the amendment and summary.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released "offers" which are essentially amendments to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from in conference the morning of Wednesday, June 23.  Today's posting includes both an amendment and summary.  The title to be considered in Wednesday's conference is:  

• Title VI of base text:  Regulatory Improvements (Prudential Regulation).

Click here for the text of the amendment and summary.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released "offers" which are essentially amendments to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from in conference the morning of Tuesday, June 22.  Today's posting includes both technical/manager's amendments and summaries.  Titles to be considered in Tuesday's conference are:  

• Title 10 of base text: Consumer Financial Protection-CFPA/CFPB,
• Title 14 of base text: Predatory lending, and
• Subtitle D of Title 9 of base text: Risk retention

Click here for the text of the offers/amendments/summaries.

Today the Senate Banking Committee posted amendments from Wednesday's conference, June 16th, which were either approved by the Senate conferees or were still to be debated on Thursday, June 17th.  They are as follows:

• Title IX as currently being debated by the Senate Conferees,
• Title XI as passed by the Senate Conferees.

Click here for the text of the amendments.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released "offers" which are essentially amendments to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from in conference starting at 11 am ET Thursday morning.  Today's posting includes both technical/manager's amendments and summaries.  Titles to be considered in Thursday's conference are:  

• Titles 1, 2 and 8: Systemic risk regulation, resolution authority, payments/clearing/settlement

Click here for the text of the offers/amendments/summaries.

Additionally, the Senate Banking Committee today posted the amendment's from Tuesday's conference, June 15th, which were approved by the Senate conferees.  They pertain to the following titles:

• Title 3 of base text: OTS/OCC merger, thrift charter;
• Title 5 of base text: Insurance;
• Title 4 of base text: Private Funds;
• Title 9, subtitle C of base text: Credit rating agencies

Click here for the text of the Senate conferee approved amendments.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released "offers" which are essentially amendments to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees
will work from in conference starting at 11 am ET Wednesday morning.  Today's posting includes both technical/manager's amendments and summaries.  Titles to be considered in Wednesday conference are:  

• Title 9, subtitles A, B, F, H, I and J of base text: Investor protection/regulatory improvements
• Title 9, subtitles E and G of base text: Executive compensation/corporate governance
• Title 11 of base text: Fed audit and governance, and emergency liquidity provisions

Click here for the text of the offers/amendments/summaries.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released "offers" which are essentially amendments to the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from in conference starting at 11 am ET Tuesday morning.  Today's posting includes both technical/manager's amendments and summaries.  Titles to be considered in Tuesday's conference are:

• Title 3 of base text: OTS/OCC merger; thrift charter
• Title 5 of base text: Insurance
• Title 4 of base text: Private Funds
• Title 9, subtitle C of base text: credit rating agencies

Click here for the text of the offers/amendments/summaries.

Today the House Financial Services Committee released the base text which all appointed Senate and House of Representatives conferees will work from over the course of the conference.  Opening statements for the thirty one (31) conferees to negotiate differences between both chambers' finance reform bills begins today at 2:15p ET.  Click here for a pdf of the base text.

Tonight the House of Representatives appointed thirty one (31) conferees to negotiate differences between both chambers' finance reform bills.  Opening statements for the conference start Thursday, June 10th, with debate beginning on Tuesday, June 15th.  Both Conference Chairman and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (MA) and fellow conferee and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (CT) have stated as their goal to deliver the legislation to Pres. Barack Obama's desk prior to July 4th.  Click here for the list of conferees, including which areas of the bill non-House Financial Services Committee conferees were appointed to cover.

Today the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee approved a derivatives regulation bill called "The Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010.” Today's Senate Agriculture Committee vote of 13-8 was largely along party lines with one Republican vote coming from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). The legislation, originally released April 16, 2010 by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and must now be incorporated into the financial reform bill passed out of the Senate Banking Committee on March 22, 2010, the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act" is expected to be taken up on the Senate floor this coming week. 

Click here for the Senate Agriculture Committee's press release, click here for bill, click here for a summary of the bill, and click here for a section by section analysis.

Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee released today its report on "Restoring American Financial Stability Act."

Click here for the Senate Banking Committee's report, click here for bill, and click here for a summary of the bill.

Today Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) unveiled her derivatives regulation draft bill called the “The Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010.”  The draft legislation addresses such issues as clearing and trading requirements and real-time reporting of derivative trades.  The Senate Agriculture Committee, which will mark-up the draft bill next week, has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission which oversees the derivatives market.  Today's release of draft legislation comes after Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) released his own draft bill on March 15, 2010 and is expected to be taken up on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.
 
Click here for the draft legislation, click here for a summary, and click here for today's press release.

Today the Senate Banking Committee voted along parties lines, 13-10, to send Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) financial reform legislation to the Senate floor.  The vote comes after hundreds of amendments were submitted in anticipation of today's Senate Banking Committee mark up, but in a surprise move Republican members of the committee withdrew their amendments essentially allowing for the bill's approval in committee.  Today's vote is a precursor to the bill being taken up on the Senate floor for passage, and should it be successful it would then have to be reconciled with the House version previously passed.  Chairman Dodd released his revised draft legislation on March 22, 2010 and his original version in November of 2009.

On March 15, 2010, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) unveiled a revised draft of proposed legislation, the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010” (the “RAFSA”), for consideration by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The RAFSA includes expansive financial industry regulatory reforms, including the “Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2010” (the “PFIARA”). The PFIARA, as proposed by Senator Dodd, is similar to a prior version of the PFIARA included in H.R. 4173, which passed the House of Representatives on December 11, 2009. If passed by Congress and signed into law in its present form, the PFIARA could have a significant impact on advisers to certain private funds, including hedge funds, private equity funds and permanent capital vehicles, by (1) requiring the registration of certain unregistered advisers under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”), and (2) imposing additional reporting and disclosure requirements on investment advisers, including those already registered under the Advisers Act. The Dodd version of the PFIARA lays out a framework for regulation of private fund advisors, but delegates to the SEC rulemaking authority for many of the details concerning the types of advisers that may face additional regulatory burden.

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Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) released a revised draft of his financial overhaul legislation today.  Today's draft bill differs in some regards to the proposed legislative language previously released by Chairman Dodd in November 2009.  Notably, the new language provides for the Federal Reserve to oversee any bank holding company with more than $50 billion in assets and would house a consumer watchdog entity, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with its own budget and rule making authority within the Federal Reserve.  The revised bill also now provides for large financial institutions to pay into an upfront $50 billion fund that would be used to liquidate a failing institution.  Although the new legislation does not automatically implement the so-called Volcker Rule, which places certain restrictions on banks when using their own funds, it does provide for the administration of the Volcker Rule after a study by the nine member Financial Stability Oversight Council, which would be chaired by the Treasury Secretary with other members from the Federal Reserve Board, the SEC, the CFTC, OCC, FDIC, FHFA, and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) announced today that he will release a revised draft of his proposed financial regulatory reform legislation on Monday, March 15, 2010.  Chairman Dodd also indicated he plans to markup the proposed legislation the week of March 22, 2010.  The new draft will be a revision of his original proposal released in November 2009. 

Click here for Chairman Dodd's press release.

The House of Representatives passed the "The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009" (HR 4173) today in a vote of 223-202.  The legislation creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a council of regulators tasked with identifying companies that the federal government deems as so interconnected with other large companies that its failure would endanger the U.S. economy as whole, and addresses other financial areas like derivatives, hedge funds, lending practices, and dissolution of failing companies.   The Senate is currently drafting its own bill on the same subject matter.
 
Click here for the House Financial Services Committee's press release, click here for HR 4173, click here for the bill's summary, and click here for the Treasury Department's press release.

Today Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and his Democratic Banking Committee colleagues released draft financial regulatory reform legislation. The new draft legislation comes as the House Financial Services Committee has yet to complete its markup of similar legislation.  Today's released legislation outlines a process for the government to determine which financial companies are more stringently regulated, the regulations to be used and the inner workings with a newly created Agency for Financial Stability.   Additionally, the legislation sets forth a process for winding down such financial companies.  Both the Office of Thrift Supervision and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency would be eliminated under the bill and replaced by a single entity, the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration.  

Click here for the press release, click here for a summary of the draft legislation and click here for the actual draft legislation.

Today the Treasury Department and the House Financial Services Committee jointly released draft legislation addressing systemic risk. The new draft legislation comes two days before the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on systemic risk, Thursday, October 29, 2009. Today's revised legislation outlines a process for the government to determined which financial companies are more stringently regulated, what regulations will be used and how they will work. Additionally, it sets forth a process for winding down such companies.

Click here for a summary of the draft legislation and press release, and click here for the actual draft legislation.

The House Agriculture Committee approved today legislation to regulate over-the-counter ("OTC") derivatives.  Today's approval amends the bill passed out of the House Financial Services Committee on October 15, 2009.  According to today's press release, "the bill institutes a clearing and trading requirement for all OTC swap transactions between dealers and large market participants that are accepted by a clearinghouse.  Additionally, non-cleared swaps must be reported, with major participants and dealers adhering to strengthened capital and margin requirements. The bill exempts commercial end users who use derivatives markets to hedge their price risk from the clearing requirement."

Click here for the House Agriculture Committee's press release, and click here for the legislative text.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank released a discussion draft of legislation to regulate over-the-counter ("OTC") derivatives Friday on Capitol Hill.  The draft is being circulated in anticipation of the Committee's hearing scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, 2009 on OTC derivatives.  

Click here for the press release, and click here for the full text of the discussion draft of the bill.  
 

Three proposed pieces of financial regulatory reform legislation released today would collectively increase the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) power and budget, require private advisers to hedge funds to register with the SEC, and create a Federal Insurance Office to assist policy makers in analyzing the insurance industry, according to today's press release by the House Financial Services Committee's Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman Paul Kanjorski.  The draft bills are for each of the following, the Investor Protection Act, the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act, and the Federal Insurance Office Act.
 
Click here for today's press release outlining each of the proposed bills.  Click here for the Investor Protection Act draft bill, click here for the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act draft bill, and click here for the Federal Insurance Office Act draft bill.

On Wednesday, June 17, 2009, President Obama set forth his administration’s blueprint for overhauling the financial system outlined in an 88-page white paper that touched everything from traditional banking regulation, such as capital ratios and liquidity, to nontraditional financial service firms, whose size alone impacts the overall economy. Traditional banking organizations will likely feel the greatest impact from the call for stronger capital and prudential standards for all financial firms and from the creation of the new office of the National Bank Supervisor, which will assume the duties of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the ongoing duties of the Office of Thrift Supervision (“OTS”). The federal savings bank charter overseen by the OTS will be phased out under the proposal. The plan also proposes a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency with broad federal powers over consumer financial products and services, regardless of whether such products and services are offered through a bank. This article highlights aspects of the Financial Regulatory Reform white paper (the “white paper”) that are most applicable to traditional banks and their holding companies.