Tag: Obama Plan for Financial Regulatory Reform

Obama Wants More Restrictions on Banks

President Barack Obama proposed  new rules designed to restrict the size and activities of the U.S.’s biggest banks. The text of his proposal has not been released yet. All we have is the video, embedded below.

The White House wants commercial banks that take deposits from customers to be barred from proprietary trading,  owning hedge funds or owning private equity firms. It sounds like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Lewis would give back their back charters. (Of course, they only grabbed those charters in order to get the liquidity from the TARP.)

The White House also wants new limits on the size and concentration of financial institutions. He mentioned the existing cap on customer deposits and seems to want to reduce that cap. I think Bank of America is the only bank that is currently close to that cap.

In the end this is just proposed legislation from the White House. They would still need to convince Senator Dodd to revise his proposed legislation and get the votes to pass it in the Senate, reconcile it with the House bill and get it passed by the full Congress.

Obama Plan for Financial Regulatory Reform and Private Investment Funds

obama plan

Along with the Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Act of 2009, the Hedge Fund Transparency Act of 2009 and the Private Fund Transparency Act of 2009, we also have the Obama plan for financial reform: Financial Regulatory Reform – A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation.

Under the Obama plan, all advisers to private pools of capital, including hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds, would be required to register with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. There would be an exception for advisers whose assets under management did not exceed “some modest threshold.” All registered private investment funds would be subject to

  1. Reporting information on the funds they manage that is sufficient to assess whether any fund poses a threat to financial stability
  2. Recordkeeping requirements,
  3. Requirements regarding disclosures to investors, creditors and counterparties and
  4. Regulatory reporting requirements
  5. Regular, periodic examinations by the SEC to monitor compliance with these requirements
  6. Confidential reporting on assets under management, borrowings, off-balance sheet exposures, and other information deemed necessary to assess whether a fund or group of related funds is so large, highly leveraged, or interconnected that it poses a threat to financial stability.

As with the Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Act of 2009, the Hedge Fund Transparency Act of 2009 and the Private Fund Transparency Act of 2009, it is too early to tell what will come of this. Although, it seems clear that many private investment funds are going to be subject to greater regulation.

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