Banking/Financial Institutions

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said a vote slated for Monday evening will determine whether his chamber begins debate on financial reform legislation. 

"I'm not going to waste anymore of the American's people time," he said, adding, "The games of [Republican] stalling are over."

Senate Republicans have been saying for quite some time that a bipartisan deal on financial reform is in the offing. That agreement has yet to materialize.  Read more...

Wall Street traders like proposed financial sector reforms by the Obama administration, especially more transparency to prevent future crises. 

Alan Valdes, a New York Stock Exchange trader, said "we think the reforms are good," after President Barack Obama spoke at Cooper Union in New York on Thursday.

The speech "hit home and all of Wall Street liked it," Valdes told CNN on the floor of the NYSE after the speech. "At least here on the floor I think most of the guys liked it and it wasn't a chastising speech," that people expected.

A lack of transparency, especially in the derivatives market, has given Wall Street "a black eye these past few years," Valdes said. 

Whether tighter financial regulations could've stopped the financial meltdown in 2008 and problems cited at Goldman Sachs, Valdes said he didn't know but "any kind of transparency would've helped." 

The market was down about 75 points today but Valdes faulted the drop on an announcement by Greece that its deficit was larger than expected. 

Obama urged Wall Street to join get on board instead of fighting reform.  

"Only with reform will we avoid a similar outcome in the future," he said. 

Goldman Sachs executives will appear before a congressional committee next week to talk about the financial crisis, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Thursday.

Levin confirmed rumors that high-level Goldman executives, likely including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, would be summoned to appear before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations next Tuesday, on which Levin serves as chairman. 

"There will be top Goldman executives coming in," Levin said, adding that his office would confirm hearing participants this afternoon. The hearing would also feature a "large number of documents," he said.

The hearings will offer lawmakers an opportunity to grill the executives for the first time in public since the firm was charged last Friday with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Levin's subcommittee has been actively investigating the roots of the financial crisis over the past few months, with a series of hearings exploring both firms and the federal government.

The Goldman charges have also become a central part of the Senate debate on Wall Street reform legislation. The executives' appearance could provide Democratic senators an opportunity to make their case for financial regulatory reform on a public stage during the hearings.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein will testify Tuesday before a Senate panel as lawmakers work to hammer out a deal on financial regulatory reform. 

With his company under heavy scrutiny for its role in the financial crisis, Blankfein will probably be making his first public comments since the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit last week charging that the company defrauded investors, according to media reports. 

Fabrice Tourre, a 31-year-old Goldman employee, also is expected to testify at the hearing, which hasn't been announced. 

The federal budget deficit would be reduced by $21 billion over the next 10 years under a financial regulatory reform bill being negotiated in the Senate. 

The bill would reduce the deficit between 2011 and 2020 by charging financial institutions to create a fund that would unwind, or liquidate struggling firms, according to a Congressional Budget Office cost estimated obtained by Reuters.  

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) have spent most of the week negotiating the final details of a bill that prevent another financial sector collapse, end bailouts and the 'too-big-too-fail' mentality within the system. 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Wednesday said optimism has waned for a broad swath of Republicans to support Democrats' financial reform bill. 

"I didn't get the sense that people were quite as optimistic here, today, this afternoon, as they have been as recently as yesterday," he told reporters. 

Cornyn, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, blamed the lack of enthusiasm on Democrats painting Republicans as Wall Street sympathizers to gain political support for the bill. 

A bill that would limit the size of the nation's financial institutions, ensure firms have money on hand to back up liabilities, boost lending to small businesses and prevent another economic collapse was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday.

Democratic Sens. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced the measure today that would impose a 10 percent cap on any bank-holding-company's share of the U.S.'s total insured deposits, reduce the amount of non-deposit liabilities to 2 percent of gross domestic product for banks and 3 percent for non-banks and set a 6 percent leverage limit for bank holding companies and select nonbank institutions. 

"If we're going to prevent big banks from putting our entire economy at risk, we need to place sensible size limits on our nation's behemoth banks," Brown said. "We need to ensure that if banks gamble, they have the resources to cover their losses."

Financial regulatory reform legislation could be unveiled "within a matter of hours," Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Wednesday on the floor. 

Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats have been ongoing throughout the week with both sides sounding optimistic about reaching an accord on the legislation. 

Although Dodd has said he would bring legislation to the floor without complete agreement, both parties have voiced an intention to have a bill come to the floor that could pass with a few amendments. 

Republican Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Mike Johanns (Neb.) have said they foresee the Senate considering a bill that could garner 70 votes. 

President Barack Obama is brushing off suggestions that the White House influenced the timing of fraud charges against Goldman Sachs.

President Barack Obama will likely hit Wall Street with another round of criticism in his speech Thursday.