President Obama's Financial Regulatory Reform Plan: Key Issues for Market Participants

On June 17, 2009, the U.S. Treasury released a White Paper, “Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation,” outlining the Obama Administration’s proposal for the most extensive reforms to the U.S. financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.

The Obama Administration’s financial reform program announced yesterday is ambitious. If adopted, it will produce far-reaching changes in the financial markets and the financial regulatory landscape.

The purpose of the attached note is not to add to the pile of summaries describing the Administration’s proposal. Instead, we have identified those elements of the proposal that we believe may have the greatest consequences for market participants and have highlighted the issues we expect to be the most important in the policy and political debate that has already begun on Capitol Hill.

Understanding these issues is important not only to evaluate and plan for potential changes in law, but also to anticipate the critical areas where supervisory and regulatory standards and industry practices may change in response to the Administration’s proposal.