Frank: Industry Can't Stop Regulatory Reform Bill

House Financial Services committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., is urging bankers to work with him on historic regulatory reform legislation, which, he says, Congress will deliver to President Obama by the end of the year. "They should accept the reality of this regulation and work with us," Rep. Frank said during a speech at the National Press Club. The House Financial Services Committee chairman noted several changes to the Obama administration regulatory reform plan that he is considering to make the proposal more acceptable to Congress and the industry — including scrapping the requirement that all mortgage lenders offer "plain vanilla" products. But he stressed that Congress is going to pass legislation that restricts leverage at large institutions, curtails excesses in derivatives markets, requires some risk retention in securitizations and sets up a single, effective agency to protect consumers. "Those are all going to happen," Rep. Frank said, and opponents of reform "can't stop it."