Progress Illinois

Wall Street may be ratcheting up its efforts to weaken financial regulatory reform, but under the leadership of Illinois' own Sen. Dick Durbin a growing number of elected officials have made it clear that they won't be bullied by the banks. Today, they garnered a key ally as President Obama joined their push for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). But as the legislation is taken up in the House Financial Services Committee this month, a looming question remains: Will Illinois representatives who appear on the fence -- such as Republicans Judy Biggert and Don Manzullo and Democrats Melissa Bean and Bill Foster -- make consumer protection a priority? Or will they cower to the deep-pocketed financial services industry?

Encouragingly, the Daily Herald editorial board today reminded these members of Congress that they have "a key role in fixing the lack of oversight that contributed to this mess." In other words, they need to stop protecting the predatory practices of the financial service sector. From the editorial, headlined "Fix the system that led to collapse":

We share the concern about added demands on business, particularly smaller operations such as community banks and reputable local lenders. We also hesitate to endorse the creation of yet another government agency.

However, the system that was manipulated to qualify the unqualified needs fixing. As we've seen, this is not only about the high-risk borrower. Even the most financially sophisticated people have been affected by this economy.

The time to fix problems is now, while the wounds of the financial crisis are fresh.

The editorial also quotes the Woodstock Institute's Dory Rand noting that the existing federal regulatory structure is weakened by the absence of a federal agency whose "primary mission" is to enforce rules that are already on the books. And Americans have paid dearly -- via subprime mortgages, sudden interest rate hikes, and other predatory practices. Creating a central CFPA to streamline oversight is a reform that a majority (57 percent) of Americans favor, according to a recently released poll (PDF) commissioned by the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America.