House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has introduced a bill containing the Obama administration's proposal to create a new agency to regulate financial products.
"I am pleased to introduce this bill which addresses an issue at the heart of the financial crisis. Recent reports about the lack of mortgage mortifications and increases in various fees only reinforce the need for this bill, which is already very clear," Frank (D-Mass.), said in a statement.
Yesterday, Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr said the agency would usurp the consumer protection responsibilities of existing regulatory agencies such as the NUA.
The measure would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to "promote transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access in the market for consumer financial products or services," according to the text.
The bill doesn't give the new agency the right to enforce the Community Reinvestment Act, which the Obama administration had requested, and instead keeps those powers within the purview of bank regulators. It also doesn't address the administration's plan to merge the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The new consumer agency would be run by a five-member board, four members appointed by the president with the advice and consent by the Senate and one member would be the head of the agency that charters and regulates national bank. The president would designate one of those members as the agency's director.
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