Key points of Senate Wall Street regulation bill
The Associated PressKey provisions of financial regulation legislation being considered by the Senate:
_A nine-member Financial Services Oversight Council made up of the Treasury secretary, Federal Reserve chairman, a presidential appointee with insurance expertise, heads of regulatory agencies and the head of a consumer protection bureau would monitor financial markets and watch for threats.
_A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve would police lending, taking powers now exercised by various bank regulators. Those regulators could appeal bureau regulations to the oversight council.
_The Federal Reserve would lose supervision of thousands of banks but would police larger bank holding companies and large, interconnected nonbank institutions that the oversight council determines could pose a threat to the economy. With council approval, the Fed could break up large, complex companies that pose a grave threat to the financial system.
_Trades of derivatives, the complicated financial instruments blamed for accelerating the Wall Street crisis, would have to take place in regulated exchanges.
_Regulators would devise rules to prohibit bank holding companies with commercial bank operations from speculative trading on their own accounts. Large, interconnected companies would have to put more money in reserve.
_Shareholders would have the right to cast nonbinding votes on executive pay packages.