Financial Services Regulatory Reform Legislation Moves Forward

Executive Summary

Financial services regulatory reform, in particular, the regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives markets and market participants, took a major step forward late last week when the Senate passed the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. Although the Senate bill in this regard follows the framework for the regulation set out in the companion bill passed by the House of Representatives in December 2009, it also differs from the House bill in several significant respects.

In particular, the Senate bill:

• requires banks to "push out" their swaps desks by denying federal assistance, including FDIC insurance, to any swaps entity;
• authorizes the several bank regulatory agencies to adopt rules prohibiting proprietary trading by banks;