【英语国际】美金改立法落定 消费者保护机构争论再起

President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping financial overhaul since the Depression, putting the country on a course toward a more muscular regulatory framework.

The law gives the government authority to take over and liquidate failing financial firms, injects transparency into transactions involving financial instruments called derivatives and will restrict banks from making risky bets with their own capital. It directs agencies to write hundreds of new rules.

But one provision that barely survived will have the most direct bearing on millions of ordinary people's lives: a new agency meant to protect consumers from abusive financial products, called the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

The proposal was the source of some of the most intense debates in the long struggle over the financial-regulatory overhaul, and the battles are far from over.

The biggest looming one is over who will head the agency, and that heated up this week as union leaders met with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to lobby for giving the job to Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School -- whose idea the agency was. Banking groups were urging key senators to oppose Ms. Warren, calling her an activist who would impose policies they argue would hurt the availability of credit, especially for those with low incomes.

With Democratic leaders in Congress joining liberal consumer groups and unions in pushing for Ms. Warren -- and with many Republicans opposed -- the contest is shaping up to have the intensity and drama of a Supreme Court nomination. Senate confirmation is needed.

Mr. Obama's choice, expected soon, will be a momentous one because the first director will have great influence over agency's direction, wielding a roughly $500 million annual budget that doesn't require approval from Congress.

The new consumer regulator will be funded by the Federal Reserve and have independent powers to write and enforce rules governing how loans and other financial products are offered, bearing on everything from the type of mortgages people can get to the fees on their credit cards.

The agency will be able to enforce its rules against any bank with more than $10 billion of assets, as well as all large mortgage lenders, student-loan companies and payday-loan firms. It will have an army of examiners to probe these companies' practices. Small banks will have to follow the new rules written by the agency but they will be examined by other federal regulators.

The bureau's policies and rules could be overturned by other regulators only if they 'would put the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system or the stability of the financial system of the U.S. at risk.'

As a new agency born out of a deep economic downturn, the agency is a modern analog of the bureaucracies spawned by the Depression, like the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Signing the financial-overhaul bill on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said, 'Our financial system only works -- our market is only free -- when there are clear rules and basic safeguards that prevent abuse, that check excess, that ensure that it is more profitable to play by the rules than to game the system. And that's what these reforms are designed to achieve.'

Ms. Warren had a front-row place at the ceremony -- and afterward lunched with White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Another candidate to head the consumer agency is Michael Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary and former University of Michigan law professor. During debate over how to construct the new financial regulations, Mr. Barr negotiated for months with bankers, and many prefer him to Ms. Warren. Mr. Barr also is very close to Mr. Geithner, which could help his candidacy.

Also a possibility is Gene Kimmelman, the Justice Department's chief counsel for competition policy and intergovernmental relations. He, like Mr. Barr and Ms. Warren, has a record of advocating measures that could crimp banks.

Damian Paletta

美国总统奥巴马周三将大萧条以来最大规模的金融改革法案签署为法律，使美国走上了更严格监管的道路。

该法赋予政府接管并清算破产金融公司的权力，为涉及衍生品这类金融工具的交易注入了透明性，并将限制银行用自有资金进行高风险投资。它将指导各机构制定数百项新规定。

不过，一个险些被“毙掉”的条款将给数百万普通人的生活带来最直接的影响：成立一个旨在保护消费者不受被滥用的金融产品损害的新机构，名为“消费者金融保护局”(Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection)。

这项提议是就金融监管改革进行的漫长战斗中激烈争论的根源之一，而论战还远没有结束。

一个隐现的最大问题是，谁将挂帅该机构。本周工会领袖们与财长盖特纳(Timothy Geithner)举行了会面，游说任命哈佛大学法学院的沃伦(Elizabeth Warren)担任该职，围绕谁将执掌该机构的争论随之升温。成立这样一个机构的想法正是沃伦提出来的。银行业组织在敦促重要参议员们反对让沃伦担任该职，称她是一位维权人士，她会实施一些损害信贷发放、特别是对低收入人群发放信贷的政策。

在国会民主党领袖与自由派消费者团体和工会一起力推沃伦担任该职、而遭到很多共和党人反对之际，这场较量有望毗及任命最高法院法官那般的激烈程度和戏剧性。该职位需要有参议院的批准。

预计奥巴马将很快做出决定。他的决定将很重要，因为第一任负责人将对该机构的方向产生重大影响。该机构每年有权动用约5亿美元的预算，而不需要国会的批准。

新的消费者保护机构将由美国联邦储备委员会(Fed)提供资金，在制定和执行有关贷款和其他金融产品提供方式的监管规定上具有独立权力，涉及到从人们可以获得的抵押贷款类型到信用卡费用等各个方面。

这一机构将能够强制资产规模在100亿美元以上的任何银行、大型的按揭贷款发放机构、学生贷款公司以及高利贷发放公司执行其规定。它还将有一个评估机构来调查这些企业的行为。小银行虽然也必须遵守该机构制定的新规则，但它们的守法情况将由其他联邦监管机构负责评估。

消费者金融保护局制定的政策和法规，只有在它们“使美国银行体系的安全性和稳固性或美国金融体系的稳定性受到威胁”时，才能被其他监管机构推翻。

作为一家经济深度低迷背景下新诞生的政府机构，消费者金融保护局可以看作是上世纪30年代经济大萧条所催生那些政府监管机构的同类。美国证券交易委员会(SEC)和美国联邦存款保险公司(FDIC)等机构都诞生于那个时代。

奥巴马周三签署金融改革法案、使之成为法律时说，只有当存在清晰的规则和基本的安全防护措施来防止权力滥用、来阻止无节制的行为、来确保遵纪守法比钻制度漏洞更有利可图时，我们的金融体系才能够正常运转，我们的市场才是自由的。而这正是这些改革旨在达到的目的。

举行签字仪式时沃伦坐在会场的前排，仪式结束后她与白宫高级顾问贾勒特(Valerie Jarrett)共进了午餐。

消费者金融保护局负责人的另一位候选人是巴尔(Michael Barr)，曾担任密歇根大学(University of Michigan)法学教授的他现在是美国的助理财政部长。在美国讨论如何构建新的金融监管体系期间，巴尔与银行家们进行了好几个月的谈判，许多银行家更支持他而非沃伦出任消费者金融保护局的负责人。巴尔与美国财政部长盖特纳的关系也很密切，盖特纳有可能为他出任这一职务助一臂之力。

美国司法部负责竞争政策和政府间关系事务的首席法律顾问凯穆尔曼(Gene Kimmelman)也是候选人之一。与巴尔和沃伦一样，凯穆尔曼也曾建议制定有可能不利于银行的监管措施。

Damian Paletta

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