Counterpoint: Financial Professionals, Bankers Leery of Over-regulation

In response to the Administrations proposal for sweeping financial reform, the American Bankers Association issued a statement Wednesday by its president and CEO Edward L. Yingling:

"We believe the administration's proposal is so vast and controversial that it will be extremely difficult to enact and will produce great uncertainty in the financial markets and among financial regulators while it is pending. It needlessly rips apart all the existing regulatory agencies, eliminates charter choices and creates a new agency with powers to mandate loans and services that go well beyond consumer protection."

 David Hirchmann, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, questioned the government's ability to regulate systemic risk:

"It's a very different thing to have the authority to identify risk than to have a regulator that's second guessing business."

 AFP Board of Directors member Bradley Larson, who is treasurer of Claire's Stores in Illinois, recently commented on proposals for regulating derivatives:

"I'm all for controls on derivatives that are too risky. However, it's always surprising to me to hear of congressmen that didn't realize that there are derivatives that actually can reduce risk," Larson told AFP. "Yet Congress is talking about making laws based on the misconception by some that all derivatives are bad. That creates all kinds of unintended consequences."