Congress Passes Sweeping Financial Reform Legislation

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In a vote of 60 to 39-just enough votes to escape a Senate filibuster--the U.S. Senate passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 15. The massive piece of legislation will become law with the president's signature, and introduce sweeping changes to the mortgage and financial services industries.

The House passed the legislation way back on June 30 and had been waiting for the Senate to muster the votes to pass the measure that was a massive response to the national financial crisis that thrust the nation into deep recession. The new law has 15 different titles that cover everything from creating a Financial Stability Oversight Council for monitoring systemic risk, to establishing a new Federal Insurance Office, to creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) inside the Federal Reserve, to instituting mortgage reforms and anti-predatory-lending measures (Title 14).

The law also imposes new requirements and oversight over credit-rating agencies by creating an Office of Credit Ratings at the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC would be given the authority to deregister a …