Described as a bill the banking industry will “love,” the efforts to reform the financial regulatory industry may not do much to help consumers.  The bill would create a consumer protection agency, but the bickering has begun over whether it should be a stand-alone agency or brought into the Federal Reserve.

I have to stand with the critics on this one when they argue for giving it a stand-alone status.  According to MSNBC,

Critics of the idea of turning over consumer protection to the Fed argue that the central bank badly stumbled in applying its existing consumer protection laws to clamp down on bad mortgage lending during the housing bubble. Simultaneously protecting bankers and consumers, they argue, is an inherent conflict of interest.

If bankers and lenders LOVE the idea of the agency being housed with the Fed and are doing everything in their power to lobby for this, then it really should go somewhere else.  I have long argued that as a real estate agent, all of my work is HEAVILY monitored.  We answer first to our clients, then our brokers. After that, the state regulates us along with our local association, state association AND national association.

Why shouldn’t lenders be afforded the same set of rules as agents?  They are - after all - the ones who actually have their hands on the sensitive financial information belonging to customers.

But that’s just my opinion.  What do you think?