Fifty Ways to Need a Lawyer: Congress Proposes to Establish Financial Services Watchdog Agency
By: Melanie Hibbs Brody, Stephanie C. Robinson
Advocates for the creation of a new federal financial regulatory body claim that consumer loans and toasters have something in common—both are useful and convenient, but either one could explode in your face. In an effort to protect consumers against the risks associated with risky financial products—particularly the types that contributed to the country’s current foreclosure crisis—Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Congressmen Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and Brad Miller (D-NC) recently introduced legislation (S.566 and a companion bill, H.R. 1705) that would create the Financial Products Safety Commission (the “FPSC” or the “Commission”), a federal financial regulatory body designed to protect users of consumer financial products and services from unreasonable risk.
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