Wall Street Reform
Preventing Future Wall Street Bailouts and Protecting Consumers on Main Street
As a senior member of the Banking Committee, Senator Reed has put consumers first and worked to increase investor protections, improve the transparency of complex financial markets and products, and toughen federal oversight of investment banks and securities firms.
Reed has focused particular attention on improving the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to aggressively pursue fraud, improve its risk management capabilities, and protect investors by enhancing the agency’s technological resources to police Wall Street. He has authored laws strengthening the SEC’s ability to bring enforcement actions, addressing issues revealed by the Madoff fraud, and modernizing the SEC’s ability to obtain critical information.
As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment, Senator Reed helped write several key pieces of the historic Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street, including a provision establishing a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also created the independent Office of Financial Research, which will research, model, and analyze risk throughout the financial system. This should give financial regulators the data and analytical power they need to understand the factors that threaten our financial system, provide early warnings, and allow regulators to act on this information.
Read More »When taxpayers were forced to invest in banks to save the economy from total collapse, Reed wrote the law ensuring they would share in the rewards when the banks recovered. As a result of Reed’s efforts, $8.5 billion and counting has been generated for taxpayers.
Key Priorities & Accomplishments
- Reed cosponsored the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which President Obama signed into law, establishing fair and sensible rules for how and when credit card companies can raise interest rates.
- Reed was a key supporter of “swipe fee” reform, helping to pass a law that prevents credit card companies and big banks from imposing billions of dollars in unfair hidden fees on consumers and small businesses each time a customer uses a debit card.
- Reed helped close a loophole that prevented regulators from overseeing the shadowy over-the-counter derivatives market and bring greater accountability and transparency to this market. The new law requires that as many derivatives as possible now be traded on exchanges and cleared by clearinghouses. It also incorporates strong new rules Senator Reed championed to allow regulators to require to the public reporting of all swaps transactions, to enhance the transparency and stability in these markets.
- Reed closed dangerous loopholes and gaps in financial oversight by requiring advisers to hedge funds and private equity funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Latest
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Reed: IPO Deal Bad for Consumers, Could Harm Long-Term Economic Growth
Posted on 3/22/2012 | -
Reed: IPO Deal Bad for Consumers, Could Harm Long-Term Economic Growth
U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) strongly opposed today’s Senate passage of a capital formation bill that weakens investor protections, loosens standards for taking a company public, and lowers safeguards for protecting the public from investment fraud. The bill (H.R. 3...
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Reed: Ill-Advised IPO Bill an Assault on Investor Protections
Today, the U.S. Senate voted 54-44 in favor of Senator Jack Reed’s (D-RI) legislation to fix the so-called Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (H.R. 3606) to prevent it from dismantling critical accounting standards and investor protections. However, 60 votes w...
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Reed Opposes Eliminating Rules to Protect Investors from Fraud
Posted on 3/20/2012 | -
Senate Seeks to Toughen a Bill Aimed at Start-Ups
WASHINGTON - A decade after the dot-com bubble popped and Enron became synonymous with spectacular fraud, Congress is on the verge of scrapping numerous safeguards against investment fraud and allowing some small companies to sell stock to the public with minimal disclosure or oversight. The bill, which...
Posted on 3/20/2012 | -
Reed Opposes Eliminating Rules to Protect Investors from Fraud
U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today spoke on the Senate floor opposing H.R. 3606, the so-called Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which would roll back critical accounting standards and investor protections on both small and giant companies that want to start selling st...
Posted on 3/19/2012 |Regulations, Small Businesses, senate floor, Venture Capital, Investors, Securities, Investor Protection, Transparency, Consumers, Small business, Job Growth, Securities and Exchange Commission, Debt, Regulation, Workers, Banks, Internet, SEC, Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Consumer Protection, Regulations, Small Businesses, senate floor, Venture Capital, Investors, Securities, Investor Protection, Transparency, Consumers, Small business -
Fighting for Investor Protections
Posted on 3/15/2012 |
