AFR sent a letter to the House this morning urging members to oppose HR 3283. HR 3283 would allow U.S. banks to evade Dodd-Frank derivatives regulation by dealing through their foreign subsidiaries. This could fatally undermine derivatives oversight.

“H.R. 3283 would let U.S. banks trade derivatives, such as credit default swaps, overseas without having to build up any extra capital to protect against a meltdown in those derivatives. ‘This would create an overwhelming temptation to move swaps business overseas, indeed to the foreign jurisdictions where regulation was most lax compared to the U.S.,’ Americans For Financial Reform, a coalition of labor, consumer and other groups, wrote in a letter to the House today.”

“Consumer advocates said the two bills could lead to abuses. For example, the bill addressing transactions between related companies refers to swaps between ‘affiliates.’ Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, said he worried that corporate lawyers would try broadening the use of that term to include more and more companies. ‘It’s ridiculous to put this broad exemption into statute,’ Stanley said.”

AFR sent a letter to the House, urging opposition to HR 2779 and HR 2682, two harmful derivatives bills which are inaccurately being presented as ‘technical amendments’ necessary to correct minor issues in the Dodd-Frank Act.

‘The regulators are under a lot of pressure,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy coalition that filed a comment letter urging that the draft rule be strengthened rather than watered down. Stanley, a former congressional aide, said that his side has at most a couple of dozen people working the agencies and Congress. Meantime, he said, hundreds of banking representatives are enlisting their customers by warning that the rule’s fallout will be higher costs and less-liquid markets.’

Click here  to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – March 17, 2012 – March 23, 2012.