Financial Reform Bill Limps Toward Passage - NYTimes.com
The bill seeks to avert future crises by giving government regulators the power to seize control of failing financial institutions, break them apart, sell off the assets and put them out of business, with shareholders and creditors taking losses.
The legislation would create a system risk council comprising the most senior government regulators to try to identify potential dangers in the financial system. It would create a powerful consumer financial protection bureau to be housed in the Federal Reserve and would impose a new regulatory framework on the trading of derivatives, the complex instruments that were at the center of the 2008 downturn.
The bill would also strengthen the Securities and Exchange Commission by giving it new authority over credit rating agencies, hedge funds and private equity companies.”
