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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama To Expand Investigations Into the Abusive Lending and Packaging of Risky Mortgages
from President Obama's SOTU address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/24/remarks-president-state-union-address
I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. The new rules we passed restore what should be any financial systems core purpose: Getting funding to entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and getting loans to responsible families who want to buy a home, or start a business, or send their kids to college.
So if you are a big bank or financial institution, youre no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers deposits. Youre required to write out a living will that details exactly how youll pay the bills if you fail - because the rest of us are not bailing you out ever again. And if youre a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they cant afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices -- those days are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them.
Well also establish a Financial Crimes Unit of highly trained investigators to crack down on large-scale fraud and protect peoples investments. Some financial firms violate major anti-fraud laws because theres no real penalty for being a repeat offender. Thats bad for consumers, and its bad for the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals who do the right thing. So pass legislation that makes the penalties for fraud count.
And tonight, Im asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorney general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.
read entire address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/24/remarks-president-state-union-address
Life Long Dem
(8,582 posts)Then investigators can crack down on large-scale fraud.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)K & R