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December 16, 2015 at 09:15 AM
(Bloomberg) — Financial industry lobbyists were stymied in their efforts to slip measures helping banks, insurers and private-equity firms into the $1.1 trillion bill funding the U.S. government.
The failures are a stark contrast to 2014, when Wall Street successfully got a provision in the year-end spending legislation that watered down a requirement that banks move swaps trading out of entities that benefit from federal backstops.
This time, the White House and Wall Street critics, such as U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, held the line. Warren said she and other Democrats were ready for any surprises in the spending legislation, while President Barack Obama repeatedly warned this year that he would veto any changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the landmark financial regulation bill that toughened oversight of banks.
Here are some of the key wish list items where Wall Street came up short:
Fiduciary Duty
Financial firms couldn’t derail rules championed by the White House that would have put tighter restrictions on brokers who advise Americans on saving for retirement.
A provision that had some bipartisan support and would have forced the Obama administration to give brokers, insurers and other companies that sell investment products more time to weigh in on the new rule was excluded from the spending bill.
The proposal could have complicated the administration’s goal of completing the rules and making them enforceable before Obama leaves office in January 2017.
