15jul10

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U.S. Senate passes historic financial overhaul

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By a vote of 60 to 39, the U.S. Senate approved on Thursday the landmark financial overhaul, setting a new milestone in the U.S. financial regulatory legislation history since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week.

The 2,300-page legislation, the most ambitious rewrite of financial regulations in decades, aims to curb Wall Street's high- risk practices blamed for the global economic meltdown of 2008, solve the systemic risk of the "too big to fail" problem among financial firms, and create a consumer protection agency to better protect Americans.

The Obama administration proposed the legislation in June 2009 in an effort to avoid the repeat of the financial crisis in the past two years.

Named after Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, the bill is expected to be described as another political victory by the Obama administration after the health care bill which was signed into law by the president earlier this year.

The House of Representatives approved it on June 30.

[Source: Xinhua, Washington, 15Jul10]

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