Amendment to Reduce the Concentration of Financial Institution Power

May 6, 2010 | S.Amdt. 3733 to S. 3217

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) offered an amendment to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 to address the domination of the financial system by institutions that are deemed "too big to fail." The Brown amendment would reduce the concentration of financial power and the risk many of these institutions pose to the economy and restore an even playing field for community banks by imposing leverage and liability limits on bank holding companies and financial companies. It would have imposed a strict cap (ten percent of insured depository institutions total U.S. deposits) on the amount of deposits held by any bank or thrift and would have limited the non-deposit liabilities of a bank. The amendment needed 60 votes to pass.