Senate Banking Committee leaders said they had made "meaningful progress" on reconciling their differences over financial reform and hope to reach agreement by Jan. 19.
"Our country needs financial regulatory reform, and we are committed to working together," Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the panel's top Republican, said in a joint statement Wednesday.
They listed six common goals: solving the too-big-to-fail problem, shielding taxpayers from bailouts by enhancing the "resolution regime," strengthening consumer protections, modernizing the regulatory structure, focusing the Federal Reserve on monetary policy and toughening derivatives oversight.
