Bloomberg News: Financial Regulatory Reform
Washington, D.C., Of Counsel Michael Oxley, former Congressman and Chairman of the House Financial Services committee, appeared on Bloomberg TV on June 12, 2009, discussing the anticipated announcements by the Obama Administration concerning financial regulatory initiatives.
Asked what type of financial regulatory reform he believes is needed, Oxley said, "This is just the beginning of the process. A lot of rumors going around about what the administration will propose . . . I suspect the major portion of it will be--or at least the beginning process will be—to try to set up a systemic, what I would call an overseer, as opposed to necessarily a regulator. Whether that's the Fed or some combination of the Fed and some kind of a council, I think is probably inevitable—and a good idea. I think you need some entity to take a look at risk assumption at '30,000 feet,' something we haven't had in the past. And with the changes that have taken place with technology and trading, we really do need a 21st century apparatus to go forward."
Asked if he thought that the current situation was just a matter of better enforcement of current rules—versus new and/or more regulations, Oxley said, "To some extent it is, but on the other hand, you had the situations at AIG, for example, where a lot of this activity took place outside of the traditionally regulated areas. We're going to have to address those new realities in different forms of legislation and regulation. That's going to be very dicey and very difficult, but I think it's important that we do that."