As members of Americans for Financial Reform, a national coalition of over 200 state and local organizations, the AFL-CIO welcomes the Obama Administration's effort to reform our financial system and rebuild our economy.  Working families have for too long paid the price for Wall Street's excess in the form of billions of dollars in bailouts, millions of lost jobs and foreclosed homes, and trillions of dollars of retirement savings destroyed.

We must ensure that any reform focus on four core objectives: (1) bringing transparency and expanded SEC oversight to the shadow banking system; (2) protecting communities by stemming the foreclosure crisis; (3) creating a system-wide regulator accountable to the public interest; (4) and building a strong commitment to consumer protection, including an agency dedicated to ensuring that financial products are safe and fair.

Any reform effort must include new powers for the government to seize institutions whose collapse would threaten the financial system.  Banks must no longer have the power to fix the rules of the game by choosing those who oversee them.  If the Federal Reserve is to be the systemic risk regulator, it must first be transformed into a truly public, democratically accountable agency.  Otherwise, systemic risk regulation may be assigned to a Council of Regulators, with its own staff and budget.

As we join President Obama for his announcement at the White House today, we look forward to fighting alongside the Administration to enact real reform for the banking and financial system.

(For more information on Americans for Financial Reform go to www.ourfinancialsecurity.org)

Contact: Eddie Vale (202) 637-5018