In Brief: ABA, Roundtable Boost Reform Bill Attack

The American Bankers Association and Financial Services Roundtable have stepped up their attack on the House Commerce Committee's financial reform bill.

"The ABA is prepared to actively oppose any legislation taken to the House floor which contains the significant changes made in the Commerce Committee," president R. Scott Jones wrote in a June 17 letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. "All state bankers' associations will join us in that opposition."

The ABA opposes the tougher restrictions on privacy, insurance sales, securities activities, and powers for direct bank subsidiaries in the Commerce bill. The group instead endorsed the rival House Banking Committee bill, but only if a ban on the sale of unitary thrifts to commercial firms is added and a few other changes are made.

Separately, the Roundtable's government affairs council vowed to strongly oppose the Commerce bill's limits on information sharing among affiliates.

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