WASHINGTON - House Financial Services Chairman Michael G. Oxley slammed an interim final Securities and Exchange Commission rule Tuesday that implemented broker-dealer provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and said he was planning hearings to look at it.
"The proposed regulations go far beyond what we anticipated in Gramm-Leach-Bliley," the Ohio Republican said. "The SEC staff is apparently taking steroids on this whole thing."
The rule has come under intense fire from regulators and industry representatives, who say that it was poorly constructed and unworkable, and that its Oct. 1 effective date is premature.
The rule is meant to implement Title II of Gramm-Leach-Bliley, which outlines the extent of the SEC's authority over bank securities offerings. The 1999 law created 15 exemptions that let banks continue offering traditional banking products, such as trust services and loan participation, without registering as broker-dealers.
