Pelosi Statement on Legislation to Strengthen Consumer Protections in Financial Regulation

July 8, 2009

Pelosi Statement on Legislation to Strengthen Consumer Protections in Financial Regulation
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616
Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on legislation introduced today by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank to formally implement President Obama?s plan to strengthen consumer protections as a part of a broader financial regulatory restructuring.
?The financial crisis exposed consumer safety as a major gap in our system of financial regulation. Unscrupulous providers peddled exotic and risky, and sometimes fraudulent, financial products that consumers often didn?t understand. We now know that these risky practices contributed to record foreclosures, a financial crisis of unprecedented proportions, and a recession we?re still recovering from.
?Today, Chairman Frank introduced the Obama Administration?s proposal to consolidate in one agency the oversight, supervision, and regulation of retail financial products. This agency?s main mandate will be to protect consumers, a responsibility that will not be watered down by competing regulatory priorities. This is the right thing to do for all the consumers who lost their homes and who were subject to abusive mortgage lending and credit card practices.
?Congress will work in a bipartisan way and with the Obama Administration to constructively move forward essential reforms of financial regulation that will protect all consumers against future abuses.?