Buongiorno
President Obama will today announce sweeping reforms of the US financial system including a new regulatory agency, new powers for the Federal Reserve and a new supervisory council to monitor risk and prevent a recurrence of the financial turmoil that caused last year's market collapse.
The root-and-branch reform of the US financial system is to be announced today prior to a speech by Alistair Darling to the City of London when the Chancellor of the Exchequer will outline the lessons of the financial crash and and criticise the behaviour of bankers.
the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, will be given new and enhanced responsibilties to monitor risk and supervise large financial institutions, including non-banks such as American International Group, the insurance giant which was nationalised in order to prevent a meltdown of the global financial system.
Finally, the US president wants to create a new consumer regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to regulate mortgage and credit card lenders and to prevent the abusive sub-prime lending practices that created the mountain of toxic debt that nearly brought downt the banking system