Tierney lauds signing of Wall Street reform bill

PEABODY – U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney on Wednesday lauded President Barack Obama for signing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.Tierney, D-Salem, has long supported the measure and voted in favor when it passed the House. The law was designed to protect consumers and small businesses while holding big banks accountable for their role in the current economic crisis.”For far too long, many on Wall Street have been allowed to profit unbridled at the expense of average American families, seniors and small businesses,” Tierney said Wednesday. “The Wall Street Reform bill signed into law (Wednesday) will put in place sensible measures to rein in Wall Street, help to prevent the risky practices that led to the current financial meltdown and ensure that taxpayers are no longer responsible for bailing out big banks.”The congressman added that Wall Street reform “will protect and empower local families to make better decisions about their financial futures while providing the regulatory certainty necessary to help investors and local businesses spur economic growth and create jobs in our communities.”The Wall Street Reform law includes provisions to protect consumers, such as eliminating costly taxpayer bailouts with new procedures to unwind failing companies that pose the greatest risk – paid for by the financial industry and not the taxpayers.The law creates a new independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect families and small businesses from deceptive practices by ensuring that bank loans, mortgages and credit cards are fair, affordable, understandable and transparent.It also ends the so-called casino culture on Wall Street by enacting tough new rules on the riskiest financial practices, including a “Volcker rule” that generally restricts investment banks from using federally insured taxpayer funds to make their own risky bets.According to Tierney, the law aims to constrain egregious executive compensation and retirement plans by allowing a “say on pay” for shareholders, requiring independent directors on compensation committees and limiting bank executive risky pay practices.Tierney has been a vocal critic of the lack of regulatory reform that led to the current economic crisis. In 1999 he was one of only 57 House members to oppose repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, legislation which protected consumer and small business deposits by creating a firewall between investment banking and commercial banking.