WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) — A last minute amendment to the 1,400-page financial reform bill being debated in the U.S. Senate seeks to delay forcing banks to stop derivatives trading.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., lead author of the bill, submitted the amendment three minutes before the deadline, as debate on the bill on the Senate floor winds down, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The proposal seeks a two-year delay on an amendment passed in the Senate Agricultural Committee that bans derivative for banks that use federal funding, such as discount loans from the Federal Reserve.
During the two-year moratorium, a council of regulators led by the Treasury secretary would study the ban and come up with its own recommendation. Presumably, that would kill the ban, as the current Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, and other regulators have already publicly objected to the ban.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Neb., chairwoman of the Agricultural Committee, said she would fight the amendment. Banks should be in the business of banking, she said.
One banking lobbyist said two-year study would have a negative effect. “Markets crave certainty. All this does is introduce a comic amount of uncertainty,” he said.
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