Pressure for more hearings on financial regulations

Financial industry lobbyists are urging House lawmakers to hold additional hearings to understand the full impact of a financial overhaul bill that has gone through a series of major amendments in recent weeks.

The House Financial Services Committee is slated on Wednesday to finish marking up a bill on regulating risks across the financial industry. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee announced that it would also mark up the same measure.

Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) intends to roll the measure and several other bills into one and voted on in the full House in mid-December. President Barack Obama has made financial overhaul legislation one of his main domestic priorities.

But some financial lobbying groups are urging lawmakers this week to proceed cautiously and to take their time.

The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents 100 large financial firms, is urging lawmakers to oppose the bill and also hold additional hearings to understand the full impact of the legislation.

"We agree that financial regulatory reform must happen sooner rather than later – but we are concerned with the speed of the committee to push this legislation forward without conducting a hearing regarding all of issues raised by the various amendments," the association's president, Steve Bartlett, wrote to lawmakers. "Without such a hearing, the Committee will not be able to fully contemplate the effect such amendments will have on the industry."