Banks Fight to Kill Proposed Consumer Protection Agency

Peacenik calls this shameless. Peacenik says to the bankers: "shut your pie holes." Ferchrissakes, bankers destroyed the global financial system. Crimes were committed. Not only should there be a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but a lot of bankers should be in jail. Yet they have the nerve to lobby against regulation? Start investigating, start charging, start confiscating, and start imprisoning. Where in the hell is the media? Oh, Peacenik forgot. It is bought and paid for. It is part of the scam. Have a good weekend.

by Kevin G. Hall

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, center, talks with Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren before the start of a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON — If you doubt that U.S. banks long to return to the days of impotent regulation, you need only look at one of the financial sector's top legislative priorities: killing a proposed new agency that would be dedicated solely to protecting consumers' financial interests.

The Obama administration is asking Congress to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to regulate consumer financial products ranging from credit cards to mortgages, and to simplify disclosure about them all.

Though virtually every cause of the nation's recent financial crisis was rooted in weak consumer protection, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is leading the fight against the proposed agency on grounds that it would make credit less available and more costly. The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and the Financial Services Roundtable also oppose the measure.

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