Magox Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Just at a time when the banking and credit card sector are suffering tremendous losses, there is more regulation to come, with possble unwanted "unintended consequences" for responsable borrowers. The Obama administration is looking to create a consumer agency for financial services. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=agR2UE7gabLM Here's a snippet: Banking trade groups such as the American Bankers Association said Obama’s “highly controversial” agency will raise costs for responsible consumers and mandate the types of products banks and financial institutions should offer. ABA President Edward Yingling yesterday testified the agency will “saddle consumers and providers with a new regime of fees.” The agency will have the power to write rules strengthening consumer protections, supervise and police a bank’s compliance and force institutions to offer “plain vanilla” products that are easy for consumers to understand. The Federal Reserve and other regulators would cede consumer oversight to the agency. “We’re concerned about the potential impact on the ability to innovate, on competition and on efficiency,” said James Mahoney, director of public policy at Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pBills Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 From I have heard is that he wants more regulation so that the banking system doesn't screw up like they did before with the mortgage crisis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted June 25, 2009 Author Share Posted June 25, 2009 From I have heard is that he wants more regulation so that the banking system doesn't screw up like they did before with the mortgage crisis. This has nothing to do with that, how about trying to read the article first, before you blindly support what it is that they are trying to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 From I have heard is that he wants more regulation so that the banking system doesn't screw up like they did before with the mortgage crisis. And if they'd enforced the regulations already in place, there wouldn't have been a crisis to begin with. Why create new ones? To cover the fact that they were too incompetent to enforce the old ones? Even now, the new regulations they're putting in place are ridiculous and often counter-productive (e.g. the "good faith estimate" for mortgages - generated by banks - must include the exact amount of all additional fees that the bank doesn't collect or is involved in. All because they haven't enforced the "full disclosure 72 hours before closing" requirement for more than a decade.) The industry doesn't need more regulation; it needs better regulators who'll actually do the damn job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pBills Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 In regards to protecting their fees, etc. They should have some sort of change in their policies. Dear god, someone misses one payment and their APR goes from 8% to 21%. Let's face it some of the penalties that have been put in place are just plain ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pBills Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 And if they'd enforced the regulations already in place, there wouldn't have been a crisis to begin with. Why create new ones? To cover the fact that they were too incompetent to enforce the old ones? Even now, the new regulations they're putting in place are ridiculous and often counter-productive (e.g. the "good faith estimate" for mortgages - generated by banks - must include the exact amount of all additional fees that the bank doesn't collect or is involved in. All because they haven't enforced the "full disclosure 72 hours before closing" requirement for more than a decade.) The industry doesn't need more regulation; it needs better regulators who'll actually do the damn job. Totally agree regulations that are not enforced mean nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 In regards to protecting their fees, etc. They should have some sort of change in their policies. Dear god, someone misses one payment and their APR goes from 8% to 21%. Let's face it some of the penalties that have been put in place are just plain ridiculous. Then don't miss a payment. It's not like they don't disclose that to people. And when they don't (e.g. Providian's old "It costs you $100 to cancel your credit card." scam), they rightfully get slammed for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted June 25, 2009 Author Share Posted June 25, 2009 Then don't miss a payment. It's not like they don't disclose that to people. And when they don't (e.g. Providian's old "It costs you $100 to cancel your credit card." scam), they rightfully get slammed for it. The sad part about this Tom, is that the responsable credit card borrowers will have to pick up the slack for the one's that are irresponsable. To a degree, this is a part of the whole scheme, which is wealth distribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Totally agree regulations that are not enforced mean nothing. So let's create more? Brilliant plan. Really, the ignorance in DC on this topic astounds me. The same idiots who lobbied for years to loosen or ignore regulation are now lobbying for new regulatory bodies to enforce new regulation because the old was ineffective because they pushed to have it ignored! And the sad thing is that the existing regulation is actually pretty damned good (in the mortgage market, at least) - clear, informative, and simple disclosure that protected the borrower (unless they were congenitally stupid, as is people's right) without stifiling competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finknottle Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Why don't we just pass some regulations that make it illegal for people to make dumb financial decisions and be done with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Why don't we just pass some regulations that make it illegal for people to make dumb financial decisions and be done with it? Because people never make dumb decisions. Anything bad that ever happens to anyone is someone else's fault, and they're just innocent victims. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 So let's create more? Brilliant plan. Really, the ignorance in DC on this topic astounds me. The same idiots who lobbied for years to loosen or ignore regulation are now lobbying for new regulatory bodies to enforce new regulation because the old was ineffective because they pushed to have it ignored! And the sad thing is that the existing regulation is actually pretty damned good (in the mortgage market, at least) - clear, informative, and simple disclosure that protected the borrower (unless they were congenitally stupid, as is people's right) without stifiling competition. The ignorance in DC isn't what's astounding. It's the ignorance of the general population to not see what's going on. Most of the politicians are willfully ignorant (there's only a handful of Pelosi's that are truly mind-numbingly dumb); in order to look like they're doing something, they have to come up w/ new laws/regulations. If they do what you suggest - make the regulatory agencies actually do their job and enforce the existing regs - then not only don't they get to stand before the cameras and say "I've created and passed this law that will solve all the problems" but someone might ask them why the existing laws / regs weren't enforced up front. Not my fault - it's the executive's fault. True, the executive enforces the laws and makes the regs, but the Congresscritters still write the checks. I still am more amazed by the "yeah, you're right, the existing regs aren't enforced, but we still need new ones because the old ones aren't enforced" than I am by politicians playing the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Why don't we just pass some regulations that make it illegal for people to make dumb financial decisions and be done with it? The prisons are already overpopulated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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