(Some Democrats oppose this, as well. Mark Warner, for one.)
Bill on Finance Wins Approval of Senate Panel
By EDWARD WYATT and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: April 21, 2010
The bill would require most derivative contracts to be traded on a public exchange and to be processed, or cleared, through a third party to guarantee payment if one of the parties to a trade went out of business. Inability to make such payments was a big factor in the failure of the American International Group, which needed a $180 billion bailout.
The derivatives bill also would require most big banks and Wall Street firms to spin off their derivatives trading into a separate subsidiary, a move that Mrs. Lincoln said would protect small banks from speculation in derivatives by big Wall Street banks.
That provision is opposed, however, by the larger banks as well as the Obama administration and therefore could emerge as a Democratic bargaining chip in trying to get Republicans to sign on to the larger bill.
Republicans expressed some confidence that they would eliminate that provision as well as the $50 billion fund, which supporters said was intended to ensure that taxpayers were not asked to finance future bailouts. Republicans have criticized it as “a bailout fund.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/business/22regulate.html?ref=politics