Friday, November 14, 2008

Policy Tracker

Senate panel to overhaul financial regulation

The Senate Banking Committee’s primary legislative focus next year “will be to modernize our nation’s framework of financial regulation,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

Dodd decided to remain as chairman of the banking panel instead of becoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That prestigious slot opened due to Sen. Joe Biden’s upcoming promotion to vice president as a result of the Nov. 4 election.

The committee already has begun hearings on how financial regulation should be changed. Several core principles will drive the legislation, Dodd said. These principles include making financial regulators “strong cops on the beat,” Dodd said, and removing incentives for regulators to weaken regulation in order to compete with each other for bank and thrift clients.

In addition, all institutions that pose a risk to the financial system “must be carefully and sensibly supervised,” either by a single regulator or multiple agencies, he said. More transparency is needed so regulators and market participants know “who owns or owes what,” he said.

Kerry likely to give up chair at small-business panel
New leadership may be on the way for the Senate committee that has jurisdiction over the Small Business Administration. It appears Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., will give up his chairmanship of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee either to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or to become Secretary of State, if he is selected for that position by President-elect Barack Obama. Kerry’s most likely replacement as chair of the small business panel is Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who harshly criticized the SBA for failing to get disaster loans to Hurricane Katrina victims quickly enough.

 

— Kent Hoover, ACBJ Wire Service