Saying that he and his colleagues have made have "significant progress and resolved a many of the items, but a few outstanding issues remain," Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said today that he will unveil his own legislation on revamping the regulation of financial services on Monday and his panel will mark up the bill the following week.
He said in the statement that the legislation would reflect the input of Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) the lead negotiator for the GOP and the work of other committee members. Dodd didn't say what the unresolved issues are that are preventing him from unveiling a bipartisan bill.
Credit unions have been especially concerned about the powers of the new entity aimed at regulating consumer financial products. Lawmakers have been sharply divided about the powers of the new regulator and whether it would be an independent agency-as proposed by the Obama administration and as outlined in the regulatory restructuring bill passed by the House last December-or whether it would be housed in an existing agency, such as the Federal Reserve.
Another concern is whether non-bank institutions, such as payday lenders and mortgage companies would be regulated by the new regulator.
"If these reports are true, this would be an unfortunate development that would likely produce a bill that would be unacceptable to credit unions," NAFCU President/CEO Fred Becker wrote lawmakers earlier this week.
CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica said yesterday that he is concerned that the new agency would "create another layer of regulation" for credit unions, who are already the most heavily regulated of financial institutions.
