Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the LaFalce-Dingell consumer protection amendments and a separate Dingell investor protection amendment.

I wholeheartedly support the goal of modernizing our financial system. But any such modernization must include meaningful protections for consumers, investors, and taxpayers.

To that end, the LaFalce-Dingell amendment would restore the ability of the SEC to make inspections of wholesale financial holding companies to monitor and enforce the federal securities laws. It would make sure that consumers and investors receive clear disclosure of all fees and commissions on the array of new products and services. It requires the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Federal bank regulators and the SEC, to study and report to Congress on how the new financial services holding companies can meet the needs of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and persons of modest means. It provides an enforcement mechanism for the bill's life-line banking requirement. And it requires the Federal Trade Commission to report to Congress on the results of its ongoing study of how to protect consumer privacy. Finally, it makes clear that federal bank regulators are to promulgate sales practice and anticoercion rules for bank sales of insurance, and that the federal regulations will provide a minimum level of protection and will not be preempted by weaker state consumer regulations.

The investor protection amendment responds to criticisms leveled by federal and state securities regulators, state insurance regulators, state and local government finance officers, and consumer groups. Its most critical element is that it preserves state securities enforcement authority and state insurance regulation, including critical solvency requirements, while protecting banks from discriminatory treatment.

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