Warren faces Dimon, hostile Chamber agency

Hostile chamber

By MARK DeCAMBRE

Last Updated: 1:13 AM, March 29, 2011

Posted: 12:18 AM, March 29, 2011

Give the consumer watchdog teeth!

That's one of the key points gutsy consumer watchdog Elizabeth Warren is expected to voice when she appears before a potentially unfriendly crowd tomorrow at the US Chamber of Commerce -- and battles two of her toughest critics.

The brainy Harvard professor, battling back after a few tough weeks, which included reprimands from lawmakers and bankers over her role in trying to hammer out a deal on toxic mortgages, is scheduled to speak in front of the anti-regulation Chamber for the first time -- and will find herself sandwiched between two of the staunchest critics of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she's been charged with getting off the ground.

House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) is expected to serve as the opening act in the Chamber's fifth annual summit, entitled "Ensuring Competitiveness in a Post-Regulatory Reform Environment."

Headlining the event is JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, perhaps Wall Street's most outspoken critic of the CFPB.

When all is said and done, the summit will be more than words from a dais. Banks claim overregulation, from the CFPB and other agencies, will ramp up costs -- everything from credit and debit cards to mortgages and checking accounts.

Warren says regulation will bring clarity to financial services. Although Warren won't be speaking at the same time as Bachus or Dimon, the summit will give the tenured Ivy League intellectual a chance to make her strongest case yet in support of the new agency that she helped birth.

Sources also say that Warren, 61, is expected to aggressively petition for a CFPB that isn't watered down and has enough funding to give its regulatory and enforcement functions bite.

She'll be talking to a tough crowd -- the US Chamber has made financial regulatory rollbacks one of its top priorities.

Bachus recently introduced a bill that could potentially dilute the power of the consumer agency and convert its leadership from a single person, something Warren favors, to a five-member panel.

Dimon, 55, isn't expected to talk about the CFPB directly but has been openly critical of the agency. The JPMorgan CEO is a proponent of beefing up consumer safeties but views Warren's CFPB as largely overkill given the number of regulators already focused on mortgages and credit cards.

"If we had had this agency six years ago, eight years ago, we would not be in the mess we are today," Warren told a Republican-controlled House two weeks ago.

The Washington face-off between the consumer watchdog and her detractors comes during a week that promises to bring a regulatory sea change to the banking industry.

Today, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. releases for comment details of new rules that would require financial institutions to keep more of the riskiest mortgage assets on their own balance sheets in order to mitigate the spread of toxic loans.

via nypost.com

Posted via email from Brian's posterous