FDIC chief says parts of regulatory plan won’t fly

WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is arguing against key pillars of the Obama administration’s plan to overhaul the financial system, saying they would not survive in Congress and that she has better ideas.

In an interview with The Associated Press, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said Congress would not go along with expanding the Federal Reserve’s authority to regulate large financial companies or with giving a new consumer protection agency enforcement powers over banks.

Power to enforce rules for banks now belongs to Bair’s agency and other bank regulators.

“There’s a lot of resistance from a lot of different quarters to a lot of the things the administration has submitted,” Bair told the AP on Thursday. “That is a reality the administration needs to deal with.”

Bank industry groups say the Obama plan, introduced in June, would burden companies and ultimately raise costs for borrowers. Congress has objected to giving the Fed more power, and critics say it failed to properly use the authority it had before the financial crisis erupted.

Other regulators, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, have objected to parts of the plan. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner angrily demanded regulators get in line, even though the Treasury has no power over agencies like the Fed and FDIC.

Treasury has suggested some regulators are simply guarding their territory. In a separate interview, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin told the AP it’s not surprising “that in understandable Washington style, (regulators) defend their own institutions.”

The White House, meanwhile, sought to refocus the debate on its broader re-regulation plan, parts of which have the support of Bair and other regulators.

“Regulatory reform is not about Washington turf wars between regulators,” White House spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said in a statement. She said President Barack Obama hopes to pass regulatory reform “that will put an end to the inadequate oversight that led us to this crisis.”

The outspoken Bair has drawn a following on Capitol Hill and among consumer advocates for her early warnings about the dangers of subprime mortgages and other statements that separated her from the political mainstream. Her advocacy of mortgage modifications as a way to stem foreclosures helped pave the way for the Obama administration’s core effort to address the housing crisis.

Under the Obama plan, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency would have authority to make and enforce rules for financial products like mortgages and credit cards. The Fed now has authority to make those rules. Bank regulators, including the Fed and FDIC, enforce them.

Bair said she supports “90 percent” of what the administration wants to do — including creating a new consumer protection agency. But she opposes giving the agency enforcement power over banks. Doing so would mean banks would answer to two enforcement teams: One from their primary regulator and one from the consumer agency.

The primary regulator would make sure the bank was safe and stable. The consumer agency’s officers would ensure the bank was complying with rules the agency would write to protect consumers.

Wolin told the AP the existing structure, which has one primary regulator doing both jobs, has led to uneven enforcement of rules intended to protect consumers from predatory lending and other abuses.

“It is important that there be one institution that has as its focus consumer protection … and that the rule-writing and supervision and enforcement for consumer protection be done all in one place,” he said.

Bair said bank regulators must maintain oversight over consumer issues and bank safety and stability. “It is interrelated in a way that is very, very difficult to tease out,” she said.

The FDIC chief said her variation on the administration’s plan would stand a better chance to get through Congress.

Amid fears the plan is faltering, top Treasury officials have defended it in a series of interviews this week. They have insisted the plan is on track and have played down differences among regulators.

“What’s important is, at the end of the day, that we all keep our eyes on the prize, make sure we’re all pointed toward comprehensive reform of the financial services sector,” Wolin said.

Business groups’ objections go further than Bair’s: They don’t want the consumer agency created at all. They are particularly upset about a proposal to let individual states pass their own, tougher consumer protection laws — something Bair supports.

Bair did say she was concerned about the lack of supervision of nonbank lenders, such as the now-defunct American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. These lenders led the move into subprime lending that helped create the financial crisis.

The FDIC chief said the new agency should create an enforcement staff focused on those firms, and leave bank supervision to agencies who already have expertise with banks.

Brian Gardner, a political analyst with the research firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said policy differences like those between Bair and Treasury will make it harder to create the consumer protection agency despite its mainstream appeal.

AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.