November 17, 2010
It is crucial to our countries continued economic success that we make the appropriate reforms to Wall Street. Our legislature has done their part by passing their recent reform bill, HR4173. I write to encourage you to do your part by implementing this legislation in a way that upholds its intent: to stabilize our economy and avoid the mistakes of the past.
The derivatives market was a big part of our past issues, and proper regulation of it is a must. Your commission is looking at two rules to this effect, the 20/40 Rule and the 5% Rule. Both rules apply to the ownership of Clearinghouses, but while the 20/40 Rule limits the total percentage of ownership that can be held by big banks, the 5% Rule does not. This is a problem because the intent of the original legislation was to prevent big banks from influencing the clearinghouses that were meant to independently process their exchanges in this market.
Each group involved in this effort to reform Wall Street must do their part, and I am asking that the commission do it part by not including the 5%Rule when the Wall Street Reform legislation is finally implemented.