Obama signs financial regulation reform bill
"These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history," Obama said at the signing ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building a few blocks from the White House. "These protections will be enforced by a new consumer watchdog with just one job: looking out for people -- not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses in the financial system."
"Reform will also rein in the abuse and excess that nearly brought down our financial system. It will finally bring transparency to the kinds of complex, risky transactions that helped trigger the financial crisis," he said.
The president was joined by a wide array of nearly 400 individuals who were instrumental in passing this historic legislation, including members of Congress, state and local officials, consumer advocates, business leaders, and Americans who will be impacted by the reform.
Obama blamed a breakdown in the financial system to be mainly responsible for the worst recession in decades.
He argued that this reform will "help foster innovation, not hamper it. It is designed to make sure that everyone follows the same set of rules, so that firms compete on price and quality, not tricks and traps."
The 2,300-page legislation aims to curb Wall Street's high-risk practices blamed for the global economic meltdown of 2008, solve the systemic risk of the "too big to fail" problem among financial firms, and create a consumer protection agency to better protect Americans.
The measure was approved by the House of Representatives on June 30, and then cleared the Senate on July 15 before going to the president for his signature.
The financial bill represents another legislative triumph of Congressional Democrats along with the passage of economic stimulus package and healthcare reform bill, but its real impact might not be felt for years.
After gaining the president's signature, the bill now heads to about 10 regulatory agencies which will write hundreds of new rules governing finance. How regulators interpret provisions in the bill will finally decide its real impact, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version.