South Bend, IN – Today, Congressman Joe Donnelly visited the South Bend Heritage Foundation to talk about the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that was signed into law by the president on July 21, 2010. This bill is designed to hold Wall Street accountable, protect American consumers and investments, increase transparency in the mortgage process, and prevent future threats of economic collapse due to Wall Street’s greedy behavior. Donnelly offered three amendments to the new law as a member of the House Committee on Financial Services.
“The new law puts Hoosier families first by implementing consumer-friendly improvements to the credit card and mortgage industries and through increased regulation of Wall Street so its irresponsible behavior will no longer threaten hard-working families’ savings and investments,” said Donnelly. “We’ve seen Wall Street’s gambling lead us to the brink of economic collapse, resulting in a blow to small businesses’ and manufacturers’ ability to get credit and stay competitive. We’ve seen what Wall Street speculators can do—we all remember the dramatic increase in gas prices two summers ago that was caused, in part, by greed. It’s long past time we put Main Street ahead of Wall Street by holding these folks accountable through common-sense rules to make their actions more transparent. I was proud to support this bill in the House and to be a part of its creation as a member of the House Financial Services Committee. The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is designed to make sure that we’re never again faced with economic collapse because Wall Street chose greed over integrity.”
“I believe this could help many Americans in this crisis of the foreclosure ‘nightmare,’” said Serge Romero, a veteran and resident of South Bend currently going through a temporary loan modification program. “We’re still in limbo in our process with the bank, but we’re making payments on our home. I hope these changes can help other families avoid the possibility of foreclosure.”
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act includes many provisions designed to protect consumers and rein in Wall Street. Below are a few highlights of the new law:
- Protecting Hoosier consumers by ensuring that bank loans, mortgages, and credit cards are fair, affordable, understandable, and transparent through the creation of a new, independent watchdog.
- Ending “too big to fail” bailouts with new procedures to unwind failing companies that pose the greatest risk, so if a firm fails in the future it will be Wall Street—not taxpayers—that pays the price.
- Protecting American investors with tough new rules for transparency and accountability for credit rating agencies.
- Strengthening regulations already on the books by empowering regulators to aggressively pursue financial fraud, conflicts of interest, and manipulation of the system that benefits special interests at the expense of working families and small businesses.
- Protecting small businesses & community banks by ensuring that new regulations meant to address problems cause by big financial institutions and corporations do not unnecessarily burden small businesses and community banks that had nothing to do with the financial crisis.
Donnelly offered three amendments while the bill was still in the House Financial Services Committee last fall that were included in the final bill that is now law. The first amendment ensures that an office created within the Securities Exchange Commission to regulate credit rating agencies is given the necessary staff and broad rulemaking authority needed to perform its duties properly.
In addition, Donnelly offered an amendment that prevents the FDIC from being used in the future to purchase equity shares of troubled banks during a rescue attempt and, instead, ensures that the FDIC is used only to protect customers’ savings and smoothly resolve failing banks.
Finally, Donnelly offered an amendment to clarify that manufactured housing retailers are not subject to the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency’s authority. Manufactured housing sellers did not participate in the kind of predatory lending that other mortgage originators did. The amendment ensures that manufactured housing retailers who act in their traditional capacity of selling homes will not face an undue burden that could increase costs for consumers.
To read a summary of the new law, click here.
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