Lobbyists Scramble to Sway Deal Titans of the financial industry are battling to influence the government's financial rescue plan, a package that will create new winners and losers in the sector. Democrats in Congress want a rescue package that benefits homeowners at risk for foreclosure, not just Wall Street. Securities houses don't want executive salary limits for banks that participate in the rescue. (...) House Republican staffers met with roughly 15 lobbyists Friday afternoon, whose message to lawmakers was clear: Don't load the legislation up with provisions not directly related to the crisis, or regulatory measures the industry has long opposed. "We're opposed to adding provisions that will affect [or] undermine the deal substantively," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, whose members include the nation's largest banks, securities firms and insurers. A deal killer for the group: a proposal that would grant bankruptcy judges new powers to lower the principal, interest rate or both on a mortgage as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.
Titans of the financial industry are battling to influence the government's financial rescue plan, a package that will create new winners and losers in the sector.
Democrats in Congress want a rescue package that benefits homeowners at risk for foreclosure, not just Wall Street. Securities houses don't want executive salary limits for banks that participate in the rescue.
(...)
House Republican staffers met with roughly 15 lobbyists Friday afternoon, whose message to lawmakers was clear: Don't load the legislation up with provisions not directly related to the crisis, or regulatory measures the industry has long opposed.
"We're opposed to adding provisions that will affect [or] undermine the deal substantively," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, whose members include the nation's largest banks, securities firms and insurers.
A deal killer for the group: a proposal that would grant bankruptcy judges new powers to lower the principal, interest rate or both on a mortgage as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.
Give us the money and don't tell us what to do with it. Or else. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Example: Lehman had
liabilities of $613 billion and assets worth $639 billion. But nobody trusted the quality of those assets.
