US admn, regulators agree on reforms

---

From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Jan 15: There have been near unanimity between the White House, the US Congress, the Fed Reserve, the SEC, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation over some kind of regulatory reforms to prevent the financial institutions from crumbling again.
President Obama called the bank bonuses " obscene 'as he revealed plans to impose levy on big financial institutions to retrieve some of the costs of the financial crisis. "We want our money back and we are going to get it," he said. He pledged to recover every single dime the American people are owed. Ms. Sheila Bair and Ms Mary Schapiro, Chiefs of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission respectively said financial institutions deemed too big to fail should not be allowed to reach a point of no return but wait for government bail out.
They said the financial crisis calls into questions the fundamental assumptions regarding financial supervision, credit availability and market discipline. The two deposed before the newly created Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Facing fresh calls to reduce its authority the Federal Reserve yesterday defended its role as Wall Street's chief watchdog. Its chairman Ben Bernanke said being able to monitor the health of the banks was crucial to setting a sound monetary policy. Bernanke said point blank that any attempt to shrink the authority of the Fed Reserve would leave the financial systems more vulnerable to collapse.
Sheila Bair struck a discordant note blaming Fed Reserve that much of the crisis may have been averted had the Fed Reserve dealt with subprime mortgages seven years before it. With both anti-Wall Street sentiment and budget deficit running high Democratic party leader welcomed the move to levy taxes on financial institutes that could fetch as much as $117 billion to cover projected bailout losses. The Republicans are silent with mid-term Congressional polls due in November. They do not want to do anything that would interpreted as " bank friendly." Taxes will be levied on banks with more than $50 billion in assets. "We are already hearing a hue and cry from the Wall Street suggesting that his proposed fee is not only unwelcome but unfair as well. That by some twisted logic it is more appropriate for the American people to bear the cost of the bailout rather than industry that benefited from it," President Obama was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
And in a strident move to prevent possible spike in oil price the US regulators said they would impose hard limits on energy futures contracts held by commodity traders to curb excessive speculations and possibly avoid a repeat of 2008 run up in oil prices. The proposed rules are intended to quell public anger about perceived roles of large and big traders in driving up oil price.