Wall Street bill sweeps away stray remnant of 1933 Glass-Steagall Act

[Donnachaidh]

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/112973-wall-street-bill-sweeps-away-stray-remnant-of-1933-glass-steagall-act

In seven simple lines buried in this year’s financial overhaul bill, lawmakers swept away one of the last vestiges of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that held sway over markets for decades.

The Depression-era bill is best known for separating commercial and investment banking — a wall that was effectively repealed in the late 1990s. Liberal Democrats, consumer advocates and a few Republicans pushed unsuccessfully this year to draw that line once more as part of the Wall Street bill.

But Glass-Steagall had another core pillar: a ban on banks paying interest on checking accounts. Banks and lawmakers chipped away at the ban and other interest rate restrictions over the years, to the point that it basically only barred payments on business accounts. The Dodd-Frank Act did away with the rule entirely.

“This really is the last remnant of that Depression edifice,” said Vincent Reinhart, a former senior Federal Reserve official.

Wayne Abernathy, executive vice president at the American Bankers Association, said the provision “is clearly an anachronism.”


More at the link ---

[Odin2005]

1. the Dems have become the Goldman Sachs Party.

[madinmaryland]

2. At this point, it doesn't have much of an effect on things.

It will be even less interest than on their savings accounts. .00135% maybe. Even the banks seem non-plussed by it.

[sandnsea]

3. Why do you oppose this repeal?

I mean specifically this one on interest on checking accounts?