Consumer Protection Agency a Go in Financial Reform

July 16, 2010

It’s been a long time coming and listening to the political debate is down-right painful, but one good thing that’s come from the new financial reform bill is more protection for consumers.

The Senate voted 60-39 Thursday to pass the financial reform bill, which would put in place broad federal authority to oversee Wall Street and attempt to prevent practices like those that led to the 2008 crash of the financial markets. It now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it next week.

The bill is an overwhelming 2,500 pages,which has drawn a great deal of criticism that lawmakers don’t really know what they’re voting for. Perhaps, but several of the key provisions in the bill are clear, including more protection for consumers:

Create a consumer protection agency. A new bureau under the Federal Reserve, led by a presidential appointee, will oversee financial products that directly impact consumers — credit cards, bank fees, mortgages, car loans, pawn brokers — and weed out predatory practices. Currently, the work of protecting consumers is spread across various bank regulators. Existing regulators would enforce new rules on community banks.

Click here to read more from Reporter David Sessions of Politics Daily.