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Obama Signs Sweeping Financial Bill Into Law

22 July 2010 07:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Reveling over a new milestone in his presidency, a triumphant Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules since the Great Depression, adding safeguards for millions of consumers and aiming to restrain Wall Street excesses that could set off a new recession, Associated Press reported.

The president’s signing ceremony capped nearly two years of intense and partisan debate over how to avoid a recurrence of the 2008 financial meltdown that buckled the U.S. economy and left sharp, lasting imprints on the nation’s politics and in Americans’ homes.

In a heated midterm election season that has dented his public support, Obama sought to put the complex law in pocketbook terms. Emphasizing provisions that guard borrowers from abusive lenders, he claimed "the strongest financial protections for consumers in the nation’s history."

Not everyone agreed. Republicans portrayed the bill as a burden on small banks and the businesses that rely on them and argued that it will cost consumers and impede job growth.

The law, passed despite nearly unanimous Republican opposition, attempts to catch up to a financial system that has sped ahead of outdated regulation and slackened rules that allowed banks, traders and others to take increased risks.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Elizabeth Warren, head of the panel assigned to oversee the bank bailout fund, also attended. Both have been instrumental in shaping parts of the bill.