US banks pouring millions into bid to kill Barack Obama's finance reform bill

[Joanne98]

Wall Street is flooding Congress with lobbyists seeking to curtail key parts of the sweeping regulatory bill

America's major banks are pouring millions of dollars into an apparently successful attempt to weaken Barack Obama's finance reform bill, currently stalled in Congress by Republican opposition.

In the face of deep public anger over the financial crisis and government bailouts, banks have flooded Congress with lobbyists seeking to curtail key parts of the sweeping regulatory bill – such as provisions to create an office for consumer protection and more strongly regulate the vast derivatives market.

JP Morgan Chase is at the forefront of lobby spending with $1.5m (£980,000) in the first quarter of this year alone – a sharp rise on the same period in 2009 – followed closely by Citigroup. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs have also spent more than $1m on lobbying Congress this year, more than double their previous spending.

The banking industry is second only to healthcare interests in the amount it spends on political lobbying.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/27/us-banks-lobbyists-finance-reform-bill

[MindandSoul]

1. That says it all. . .follow the money! If the banks had no concerns about this bill

They would be spending their money elsewhere!

[Skink]

2. This money comes right out of their tax payer slush fund.