Obama Wants Big Banks To Pay More for Oversight [View All]

[SpartanDem]

Source: WaPo

The Obama administration is pressing ahead with its broad overhaul of financial regulation by proposing to hike the fees big financial firms pay for federal oversight while easing the burden for smaller ones, officials said.

The new two-tiered, pay-for-regulation approach is intended to partly cover the costs of more vigorous bank regulation and a new consumer financial protection agency. It reflects the administration's view that large banks and lenders should pay more because they are more complex and expensive to regulate, a Treasury Department official said.

The new fee structure is part of the administration's effort to rework the relationship between Wall Street and Washington. Legislation is now before Congress, which is set to take up the massive regulatory overhaul in the fall.

But the plan has run into opposition from some Republicans and federal regulators who do not want to be stripped of their powers or merged into other agencies. In addition, industry officials have been working vigorously on Capitol Hill to block the creation of a new consumer protection agency. On Thursday, advocates for big financial firms warned that any higher fees imposed by the federal government may be passed on to consumers.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081303274.html?hpid=topnews