Topic “Consumer Safety”

An investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission warned superiors as far back as 2004 about irregularities at Bernard L. Madoff's financial management firm, but she was told to focus on an unrelated matter, according to agency documents and sources familiar with the investigation.

The Obama administration last night detailed a series of proposals to involve the government more deeply in private markets, from helping to steer borrowers into affordable mortgage loans to imposing new limits on the largest financial companies, in a sweeping effort to curb the kinds of reckless risk-taking that sparked the economic crisis.

The Obama administration on Wednesday will unveil its wide-ranging proposal to remake the financial regulatory system, but lobbyists across the political spectrum were already digging in and drawing up strategies for a major overhaul battle that will last at least through the rest of the year.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, intends by the August recess to pass through his committee legislation that restructures the financial system. He is awaiting the final proposal from the administration.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is proposing the creation of a new office within the Treasury Department to coordinate policy in the state-regulated insurance sector, according to a near-final draft of the plan.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday will call for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of his long-awaited plan for overhauling the nation’s market regulatory structure in response to last year’s meltdown, administration officials tell POLITICO.

The presidential ink was barely dry on a landmark law reining in credit card companies when the business community was forced back on the defensive by congressional zeal to protect consumers.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) fired off his latest salvo the same day the Senate passed the credit card bill, introducing a “shareholder bill of rights” with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). The proposal seeks to give shareholders the power to curb excessive risk-taking and executive compensation that critics say helped push the country into its current economic mess.

The White House has yet to nominate anyone for the top food safety slot at the Agriculture Department, but public health and consumer advocates have already started a quiet campaign against the job’s frontrunner.

Michael Doyle, a professor at the University of Georgia and director of the school’s Center for Food Safety, is certainly no registered lobbyist. But his critics charge that he’s too cozy with the meat industry that he would be in charge of regulating as undersecretary for food safety at USDA.

The Obama administration is actively discussing the creation of a regulatory commission that would have broad authority to protect consumers who use financial products as varied as mortgages, credit cards and mutual funds, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

The proposed commission would be one of the administration's most significant steps yet to overhaul the financial regulatory system. It would also be one of its first proposals to address causes of the financial crisis such as predatory mortgage lending.