Speaking at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Summit on the Troubled Asset Relief Program Monday morning, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., discussed the direction he sees regulatory reform going in for the new Congress. Part of that vision appears to include more oversight of private capital players such as hedge funds or buyout shops whose failure could present a systemic threat.
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Speaking about the tremendous amount of interlinking between regulated and unregulated financial firms in today's markets, Schumer advocated a central regulator with the authority and understanding to prevent systemic risk.
"All market participants [regulated and unregulated] are linked as counterparties," he said. "A regulatory framework that fails to recognize the global nature of financial firms will not be able to handle the task. Our financial system has evolved into a system where there are a number of financial Jupiters orbited by asteroids.
"Today these firms don't operate in the same old ways, the rules do." - George White
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