Millions of Jobs Were Lost Because of Wall Street,
We Need Tough Financial Reforms to Ensure it Never Happens Again

Across America, millions of working families lost jobs and still can't find work because of the reckless and selfish actions of Wall Street and the big banks.  Their financial misdeeds nearly brought our economy to its knees, and we need tough financial reforms to ensure that it never happens again. 

Two years have passed since the collapse of Bear Stearns signaled the failures in our regulatory system, and the time for action is now.  Senator Dodd's draft legislation is an important step towards the comprehensive financial regulation our country needs.  He has worked overtime to seek input from all parties and build consensus, in spite of audacious opposition from Wall Street and a nearly unanimous Republican chorus of NO. 

As the bill proceeds to markup, it needs to be strengthened in important ways to ensure that big banks and Wall Street can't repeat the actions that nearly destroyed our economy: 

          -  It must ensure that a Consumer Financial Protection Agency has the 
             independence and full authority to protect consumers from dangerous 
             financial products and practices.  

          -  It has to bring long overdue transparency and accountability to our shadow 
             capital markets, including requiring all standardized derivatives to be cleared 
             and traded on fully transparent exchanges and regulating hedge funds, 
             private equity and venture capital to protect investors and prevent systemic risk. 

          -  It must ensure that a systemic risk regulator is required to set capital and 
             liquidity requirements that become increasingly strict as financial institutions 
             become larger and more risky, requiring regulators to break up banks that are 
             "too big to fail," and giving the FDIC the power to liquidate risky financial firms 
             without using taxpayer money.

We welcome the bill's efforts to reform the governance of the regional Federal Reserve banks and strengthen corporate governance, and look forward to working with Chairman Dodd and the committee to strengthen and enact the comprehensive reform Americans demand.

Contact:  Amaya Tune, Eddie Vale 202-637-5018