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President Barack Obama has signed into law an
overhaul of banking and Wall Street regulations that he says will
create the strongest financial protections for consumers in
history.

      The law is a legislative victory for the president, who has made
tightening restrictions on banks a signature issue since taking
office amid the nation's financial meltdown. Obama says the reforms
will end many of the Wall Street practices that sent the economy
into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

      In an ironic touch, Obama signed the bill in the Ronald Reagan
Building, named after a president who championed deregulation.
Obama was joined by scores of consumer advocates, business
executives and lawmakers who supported the bill.


      The law also assembles a powerful council of regulators to be on
the lookout for risks across the finance system. It places shadow
financial markets that previously escaped the oversight of
regulators under new scrutiny and gives the government new powers
to break up companies that threaten the economy.


      Large, failing financial institutions would be liquidated and
the costs assessed on their surviving peers. Borrowers will be
protected from hidden fees and abusive terms, but also will have to
provide evidence that they can repay their loans. The Federal
Reserve will get new powers while at the same time coming under
expanded congressional oversight.

      In an ironic touch, Obama will sign the bill in the massive
Ronald Reagan Building, named after a president who championed
deregulation. Joining him will be scores of consumer advocates,
state and local government officials, business owners and
executives, and members of Congress who supported the bill. Among
those expected to be featured are Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the two committee chairmen who
shepherded the bill through Congress and after whom the bill is
named.

      Obama will also be joined by a Maryland Vietnam veteran who was
hit with bank overdraft fees and a Georgia teacher stung by
retroactive interest rate increases on her credit card balance -
two issues the legislation aims to remedy.

      Though Obama and his top officials urged Congress to pass the
law while the memory of the 2008 financial meltdown was still
fresh, many of the law's provisions won't take effect for at least
a year as regulators scramble to write new rules and implement
them.

      "That will take some time, but it is worth it," Deputy
Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said Tuesday.

      While the bill represents the end of a year's work by Congress
and the administration, Obama has at least one contentious remnant
from the bill to address. He must still nominate a director to the
independent consumer protection bureau, an agency that became one
of the bill's flashpoints and was attacked by Republicans as a
broad expansion of government power over private business.

      Among those expected at the signing ceremony is Elizabeth
Warren, the Harvard law professor considered a leading candidate
for the job. Warren is a consumer advocate who was among the first
to propose the idea of a new agency for financial consumers. As
head of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the government's $700
billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank rescue fund known
as TARP, she has periodically clashed with Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner.

      Liberals and unions have been aggressively pressing for her
appointment. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was among the latest
to weigh in on behalf of Warren, saying Tuesday she is the only
candidate "uniquely qualified and equipped to head this new
agency."

      But opposition in the Senate could make her confirmation
difficult, a point Dodd made in a radio interview on NPR Monday.

      Also under serious consideration by the White House is assistant
Treasury secretary Michael Barr, one of the architects of the
financial regulation bill and a close ally of some White House
officials. Deputy assistant attorney general Eugene Kimmelman is
also in the running for the slot.

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Congress sends Obama sweeping Wall Street bill

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President Barack Obama has signed into law an
overhaul of banking and Wall Street regulations that he says will
create the strongest financial protections for consumers in
history.


Obama signs sweeping financial overhaul into law

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