Crapo: Congress Needs To Enact 21st Century Regulation For 21st Century Markets

Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, member of both the Senate Banking and Finance Committees, believes the U.S. Department of Treasury's "Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure," released today, makes progress in updating the current regulatory model for financial markets. The blueprint provides recommendations including short-term recommendations to regulatory coordination and oversight; intermediate-term recommendations to modernize our regulatory structure within the current framework; and long-term recommendations creating an entirely new regulatory structure using an objectives-based approach for optimal regulation.

"Secretary Paulson took an important step forward today by offering Treasury's comprehensive vision for rethinking the current regulatory structure and its goals," said Crapo, Chair of the Senate Republican Capital Markets Task Force. "Although this report will challenge the traditional piecemeal way of regulating financial markets, Congress should not ignore its call to fix our fragmented regulatory structure. The Capital Markets Task Force will seriously consider its recommendations."

"The ongoing turmoil in U.S. housing and financial markets vividly demonstrates the pressing need to modernize America's financial regulatory structure. While changes in technology and innovation have moved the rest of the world into the 21st century, our outdated oversight system remains stuck in the last century. This report recognizes that adding more of the old, failed regulatory model is not the solution."

A copy of the Treasury Department's blueprint can be found on Crapo's website at:
http://crapo.senate.gov/republican_capital_markets_task_force.cfm.