UPDATE 3-US Sen Corker: no exemptions in new watchdog bill
* "No carve-outs" in consumer protection proposal -Corker
* Safety and soundness of banks crucial -Corker
* White House opposes exemption for payday lenders (Updates with White House reiterating its payday opposition)
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - An influential Republican in U.S. Senate talks on financial regulatory reform said on Wednesday there are no special exemptions for particular institutions in a proposed new government financial watchdog agency.
Senator Bob Corker, amid reports that he has pressed in negotiations for special treatment in legislation for payday lenders, said: "There are no carve-outs for anybody."
U.S. businesses, including financial services firms and payday lenders have been lobbying the Senate to water down a White House plan to create an agency to regulate consumer financial products, such as mortgages, credit cards and payday loans, which are short-term loans made against the borrower's next paycheck.
The White House opposes any exemption for payday lenders.
"We have been clear from the beginning that everyone should have to play by the same clear rules with no loopholes so that there is a level playing field," a senior administration official said.
"Exempting payday lenders who target Americans, ranging from college students to the men and women of the military, does not meet that test," the official said.
Corker, a first-term Republican, stressed at a conference that he was not aware of any carve-outs and suggested that reports that said otherwise were incorrect.
Corker is working closely with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat, on crafting a bipartisan financial regulation bill, along with Republican Senator Richard Shelby, the committee's top Republican.
The White House and top Democrats favor an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency with authority to write and enforce rules. Republicans are opposed to giving government sweeping new powers to regulate consumer financial products.
Corker reiterated that consumer protection should not be allowed to trump supervision of bank safety and soundness -- a position Republicans have held consistently through months of debate.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner said banking committee members were on the verge of achieving a bipartisan approach that appropriately enhances consumer protection.
The banking committee is considering placing consumer protection authority with the U.S. Federal Reserve, even though the central bank has been criticized for lax regulation.
"I agree that the Fed did a terrible job of protecting consumers," Corker said at a National Journal event in Washington. But he said the government cannot have multiple regulators dealing with financial institutions, each giving mixed signals.
Corker, however, said there would be a way for bank regulators to ensure that consumer rules do not destabilize the safety and soundness of financial institutions.
Aside from new rules to protect consumers, the Senate panel is working on a bill to regulate the $450 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market and ensure that a federal entity has a way to examine risk throughout the financial system.
Corker and Warner have been working on legislation to ensure that no financial firm is too big to fail after the U.S. government used billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to rescue companies such as insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N).
At the same conference, Warner said that bankruptcy would be the preferred option for a troubled financial firm.
"We will be reiterating that no rational management team will want to think about resolution," he said. (Editing by Leslie Adler and Padraic Cassidy)
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Gee, Sen Corker, isn’t consumer protection the point of bank safety & soundess?
Or is the real news that no financial firm will be left out of your industry-written bill, whose real purpose is to keep regulation from screwing up those screw-you profits we bought for your clients.
And not surprised to see ethics-handicapable Chis Dodd is your candidate for bipartisan support. Kind of like the wolf inviting the quick red fox to size up Li’l Red as a dinner date.
known liars cheats and thieves
Paterson, Blago, Buriss, Bush, Cheny, Eliot Spitzer, Ryan, Strogger, Loren Maltese, John Edwards, John Kerry, Mark Sanford, Gonzales, David Safavian, Roger Stillwell Jack Abramoff Frank Sturgis Eugenio Martinez Bernard Barker Virgilio Gonzalez, E. Howard Hunt , Liddy, Herbert L. Porter, Charles W. Colson , Herbert W. Kalmbach , Dwight L. Chapin , John W. Dean III , John Ehrlichman , H. R. Haldeman , Frederick C. LaRue , Jeb Stuart Magruder, Richard Kleindienst, John Newton Mitchell, Richard Nixon, Harold Carswell, Otto Kerner, Jr., Andrew J. Hinshaw, Wayne L. Hays, John V. Dowdy, Deborah Gore Dean, James G. Watt, Samuel Pierce, Robert Bernard Anderson, Raymond J. Donovan, Clarence Thomas, Walter Nixon, Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, Robert C. McFarlane, Dan Rostenkowski , Joe Kolter, Jay Kim, Carol Moseley-Braun, Larry Langford
all have served time or doing time crooks liars and thieves
“In addition to stripping out transparency and accountability, the Senate version is set to grant the Fed broad NEW powers over our economy by putting the Consumer Financial Protection Agency under the Fed’s purview.
Seriously? The same Fed that won’t tell us where our trillions of dollars went is going to be put in charge of “consumer protection?”
It would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous. . . It’s clear that passage of this bill would pretty much guarantee that the Fed is never audited, allowing the banksters to continue to rob and loot the American people.”
- John Tate Campaign For Liberty
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