How do the consumer protection agencies stack up in the House and Senate bills?

[deaniac83]

I wrote a blog post about this today, you can see it here:

http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2010/04/consumer-protection-in-financial-reform.html

Basically, at the end of the day, both the House and the Senate bills have their own strengths when it comes to the newly devised consumer protection unit. I can't say at this moment that one is clearly superior to the other. In my view, the agreements are more striking than the similarities.

What is widely known is that the House bill creates an independent agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), whereas the Senate bill creates a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) "housed" within the Federal Reserve but explicitly barring the Feds from exercising any control over it. Not much more than that has made it into the public lexicon. That's what my post is about - they both have broad ranging authorities, and despite being housed in the Fed, the Senate's version is not necessarily weaker, and it explicitly bars any Fed intervention in the agency's functions. The biggest differences are that the Senate bill provides an oversight panel with authority to overturn the agency's regulations (with a 2/3 vote), and the House bill eventually makes the agency into a commission with 5 members, building in internal inertia.

More here:

http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2010/04/consumer-protection-in-financial-reform.html

[Dappleganger]

1. K&R for a good question. nt

[deaniac83]

2. Thank you

Granted, my post is kind of geeky (on the blog)... but I tend to do nerdy stuff. :P