Obama: US financial regulatory reforms "essential"

Obama: US financial regulatory reforms "essential"

Politics 3/20/2010 8:35:00 PM



WASHINGTON, March 20 (KUNA) -- US President Barack Obama on Saturday said financial regualatory reforms are "essential" to reign in abuse and excess by major finacial firms that led to the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
In his weekly national address, Obama said the Senate Banking Committee, early next week will debate financial legislation, which he called described as "essential", "common-sense rules that will allow our markets to function fairly and freely while reigning in the worst practices of the financial industry," adding "thats the central lesson of this crisis, and we fail to heed that lesson at our peril." Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, has proposed the biggest Wall Street regulatory overhaul in more than 80 years as a response to the 2008 financial crisis.
The legislation is based on a proposal from Obama and would let the Federal Reserve (Fed) break up large firms if they pose a threat to the economy, limit risky trading by banks and create a consumer financial protection agency within the Fed.
Obama called the proposal a "strong foundation for reform" that would provide closer oversight of large financial firms, prevent banks from taking unnecessary risks and help ensure taxpayers would no longer be responsible for bailing out banks that are "too big to fail." (end) hy.bs KUNA 202035 Mar 10NNNN