Treasury Set to Announce Regulatory Overhaul (
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A new regulatory plan will be put in place by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in response to mounting recessionary trends in the economy. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson will reveal in full sweeping new plans on Monday for
streamlining a hodgepodge of regulation faulted for permitting the U.S.
mortgage crisis to balloon into a full-blown economic threat.
Keenly aware of the political debate already mounting as soaring
home foreclosures push the economy toward recession, the Bush
administration allowed the veil to be lifted on key measures before
Paulson's announcement at 10:00 a.m. EDT.
The regulatory blueprint proposes vesting new powers as a "market
stability regulator" in the Federal Reserve -- effectively formalizing
a role it already has been performing by providing liquidity to
investment banks and lowering official interest rates.
It would give the U.S. central bank authority to demand that all
financial system participants supply it with full information on their
activities and grant the Fed a right to collaborate with other
regulators in setting rules for their behavior.
Since problems surfaced last August with rising failure rates on
subprime mortgage loans to less credit-worthy borrowers, credit markets
have come near seizure several times. And public anger has mounted at
what was perceived as slack enforcement of existing rules.
Many mortgage loans were made without basic fact-checking. Some did
not even verify whether borrowers actually earned the incomes they
claimed or whether they were steered into inappropriate loans with low
initial "teaser" rates that soon reset at higher rates requiring much
larger monthly payments.
Treasury acknowledged in draft proposals that the current regulatory
system is full of "regulatory gaps as well as redundancies." It sets
out an ambitious schedule for modifying and simplifying it -- one that
has little chance of being enacted in President George W. Bush's
remaining 10 months.
A new regulatory plan will be put in place by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in response to mounting recessionary trends in the economy. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson will reveal in full sweeping new plans on Monday for
streamlining a hodgepodge of regulation faulted for permitting the U.S.
mortgage crisis to balloon into a full-blown economic threat.
Keenly aware of the political debate already mounting as soaring
home foreclosures push the economy toward recession, the Bush
administration allowed the veil to be lifted on key measures before
Paulson's announcement at 10:00 a.m. EDT.
The regulatory blueprint proposes vesting new powers as a "market
stability regulator" in the Federal Reserve -- effectively formalizing
a role it already has been performing by providing liquidity to
investment banks and lowering official interest rates.
It would give the U.S. central bank authority to demand that all
financial system participants supply it with full information on their
activities and grant the Fed a right to collaborate with other
regulators in setting rules for their behavior.
Since problems surfaced last August with rising failure rates on
subprime mortgage loans to less credit-worthy borrowers, credit markets
have come near seizure several times. And public anger has mounted at
what was perceived as slack enforcement of existing rules.
Many mortgage loans were made without basic fact-checking. Some did
not even verify whether borrowers actually earned the incomes they
claimed or whether they were steered into inappropriate loans with low
initial "teaser" rates that soon reset at higher rates requiring much
larger monthly payments.
Treasury acknowledged in draft proposals that the current regulatory
system is full of "regulatory gaps as well as redundancies." It sets
out an ambitious schedule for modifying and simplifying it -- one that
has little chance of being enacted in President George W. Bush's
remaining 10 months.