Kilroy Plays Major Role in Passage of Historic Wall Street Reform

Press Release

Today freshman U.S. Representative Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15) helped pass the conference committee report of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in the full House of Representatives. Kilroy, oneof the most active and effective new members of Congress was one of only two freshman and the only member of the House or Senate from Ohio on the committee. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill in the coming days.

"Wall Street and special interests caused a despicable mess with their greed and self-interest," said Kilroy. "Wall Street failed Ohioans and Americans when they took bets on no-win investments that led the economy off a cliff. Taxpayers shouldn't ever foot the bill of foolish risk takers who think they can rely on the government bailing them out when they mess up."

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act better protects Americans in their dealings with banks, credit card companies and other firms selling financial products while holding executives, rather than taxpayers, accountable for bad business decisions.

While the bill was being debated in conference Kilroy held meetings with consumers and small business owners in her district who expressed their support in reforming Wall Street and corporate greed. She also carried letters with her in to the committee room each day that stood as a symbol of the pain that Americans are going through. Each of these letters are from Americans who were personally impacted by Wall Street's greed.
Kilroy, a member of the Financial Services Committee, authored and helped pass significant language in the conference report that will aid consumers, investors, small businesses, while holding greedy special interests accountable for their actions. Several of the provisions Kilroy authored and helped pass are below as are an extensive list that of items that will help consumers.
The bill has been called the "strongest set of Wall Street reforms in three generations" by Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the nonpartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, and has been endorsed by the AARP, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Council of Institutional Investors, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Restaurant Association, Public, among other organizations. The bill was publicly debated for more than 50 hours, and includes over 70 Republican and bipartisan amendments.
Kilroy's work includes:

* Authoring a provision on an Investor Advisory Committee , which would strengthen investor protection by establishing the "Investor Advisory Committee" to give investors a greater voice within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
* Authoring a provision on disclosure of Proxy Voting, which would increase transparency for Main Street by forcing institutional investors like hedge funds to disclose the way they vote on executive compensation.
* Authoring a provision that ensures credit rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poors will be held accountable for sloppy or illegal performance by nullifying a rule known as 436(g).
* Authoring a notice to lost security holders, which would strengthen investor rights by enhancing the notification requirements regarding the payment of dividend checks.
* Helping Pass a section that would establish an historic new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
* Helping Pass a section that ends the era of too big to fail Wall Street banks and taxpayer funded bailouts (Titles I & II).
* Helping Pass a section prohibiting Wall Street banks from using their own money to make risky bets while relying on the American taxpayer to save them when things go wrong (Title VI - Volcker Rule),
* Helping Pass a section bringing transparency and stability to the shadowy derivatives market, which led to the collapse or near collapse of Wall Street firms like Lehman Brothers and AIG (Title VII - Derivatives).
* Helping Pass a section that would allow small business owners and operators greater control negotiating credit card swipe fees.
* Helping Pass a section that would help homeowners facing foreclosure through a grants program operated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

More Key Protections for Americans and Small Businesses
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has clear benefits families, as well as for America's small businesses. The Act:

* Establishes a new independent watchdog agency with the authority to:
o Ensure American consumers get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for mortgages, credit cards, student loans, and other financial products, and
o Protect them from hidden fees, abusive terms, unfair terms and deceptive practices.
* Reforms mortgage lending eliminating many of the hidden fees and abusive practices that trapped so many families with loans they could not afford to repay, and that resulted in record foreclosures.
* Reforms debit card transaction fees, potentially saving American small businesses billions of dollars each year.

In detail, here are some of the strong consumer provisions in the bill:
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
· Strong Independence: Led by an independent director appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, with a dedicated budget in the Federal Reserve, the Bureau will be able to autonomously write rules for consumer protections governing all financial institutions -- banks and non-banks -- offering consumer financial services or products and oversee the enforcement of federal laws intended to ensure the fair, equitable and nondiscriminatory access to credit for individuals and communities. This could range from requiring new easy-to-read mortgage loans to capping credit card interest rates.
· Covers Range of Financial Products: This applies to banks and credit unions with assets of over $10 billion and all mortgage-related businesses (lenders, servicers, mortgage brokers, and foreclosure scam operators), payday lenders, and student lenders as well as other non-bank financial companies that are large, such as debt collectors and consumer reporting agencies. Banks and Credit Unions with assetsof $10 billion or less will be examined for consumer complaints by the appropriate regulator.
· Able to Act Fast: With this Bureau on the lookout for bad deals and schemes, consumers won't have to wait for Congress to pass a law to be protected from abusive anti-consumer practices.
· Consumer Hotline: Creates a national consumer complaint hotline so consumers will have, for the first time, a single toll-free number to report problems with financial products and services.
· Educates: Creates a new Office of Financial Literacy.
· Accountability: Makes this one office accountable for consumer protections. With many agencies sharing that responsibility now, it's hard to know who is responsible for what, and easy for emerging problems that haven't historically fallen under anyone's purview to fall through the cracks. Currently, these are handled by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Federal Trade Commission
· Clearly Defined Oversight: Protects small business from unintentionally being regulated by the CFPB, excluding some auto loans and businesses that meet certain standards.

CREDIT SCORE PROTECTION
· Monitor Personal Financial Rating: Allows consumers free access to their credit score if their score negatively affects them in a financial transaction or a hiring decision. Gives consumers access to credit score disclosures as part of an adverse action and risk-based pricing notice.

MORTGAGE REFORM
· Require Lenders Ensure a Borrower's Ability to Repay: Establishes a simple federal standard for all home loans: institutions must ensure that borrowers can repay the loans they are sold.
· Require Additional Disclosures for Consumers on Mortgages: Lenders must disclose the maximum a consumer could pay on a variable rate mortgage, with a warning that payments will vary based on interest rate changes.
· Prohibit Unfair Lending Practices: Prohibits the financial incentives for subprime loans that encourage lenders to steer borrowers into more costly loans, including the bonuses known as "yield spread premiums" that lenders pay to brokers to inflate the cost of loans. Prohibits pre-payment penalties that trapped so many borrowers into unaffordable loans.
· Establishes Penalties for Irresponsible Lending: Lenders and mortgage brokers who don't comply with new standards will be held accountable by consumers for as high as three-years of interest payments and damages plus attorney's fees (if any). Protects borrowers against foreclosure for violations of these standards.
· Expands Consumer Protections for High-Cost Mortgages: Expands the protections available under federal rules on high-cost loans -- lowering the interest rate and the points and fee triggers that define high cost loans.
· Housing Counseling: Establishes an Office of Housing Counseling within HUD to boost homeownership and rental housing counseling.

TACKLING THE EFFECTS OF THE MORTGAGE CRISIS
· Neighborhood Stabilization Program: Provides $1 billion to States and localities to combat the ugly impact on neighborhood of the foreclosure crisis -- such as falling property values and increased crime - by rehabilitating, redeveloping, and reusing abandoned and foreclosed properties.
· Emergency Mortgage Relief: Building on a successful Pennsylvania program, provides $1 billion for bridge loans to qualified unemployed homeowners with reasonable prospects for reemployment to help cover mortgage payments until they are reemployed.
· Foreclosure Legal Assistance. Authorizes a HUD administered program for making grants to provide foreclosure legal assistance to low- and moderate-income homeowners and tenants related to home ownership preservation, home foreclosure prevention, and tenancy associated with home foreclosure.

INVESTOR PROTECTIONS
· Fiduciary Duty: Gives SEC the authority to impose a fiduciary duty on brokers who give investment advice. The advice must be in the best interest of their customers.

FAIR INTERCHANGE FEES FOR RETAILERS
· Protects Small Businesses from Unreasonable Fees: Requires Federal Reserve to issue rules to ensure that fees charged to merchants by credit card companies for debit card transactions are reasonable and proportional to the cost of processing those transactions. These retailers stand to save billions in payments; debit swipe fees amount to about $20 billion a year. Merchants could offer discounts to customers who pay cash and could set a $10 minimum for card transactions.

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