WASHINGTON - El senador federal Robert Menéndez (D-NJ), miembro del Comité de la Banca que ayudó a crear la legislación de reformas a Wall Street, hoy aplaudió su aprobación final en el Senado por un voto de 60-39. La misma implementará una serie de reglas que exigen responsabilidad con sentido común para Wall Street, reducirán las practicas riesgosas y terminará con la necesidad de salvar de la bancarrota a las grandes compañías bancarias, mientras que impone nuevas medidas para proteger al consumidor (lea un resumen de la legislación aquí:

http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/070110_Dodd_Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_comprehensive_summary_Final.pdf). Menendez formuló y logró incluir varias disposiciones para proteger al consumidor en el proyecto de ley:

"Como resultado de este histórico proyecto de ley, haremos que Wall Street sea responsable, lo cual significa más seguridad económica para el ciudadano común." dijo Menéndez. "Si estas reglas de sentido común, hubiesen existido antes de la recesión, millones de empleos se hubiesen salvado, millones de ejecuciones de hipotecas se hubiesen evitado y hubiese protegido trillones de dólares en ahorros perdidos. Estas reformas tan importantes están basadas en la simple y sencilla idea que nuestra economía debe estar fundamentada en un mercado libre, no en un mercando POR la libre. Esto es lo que estamos ayudando a lograr." Provisions in the final bill that Menendez helped to include:

  • "Honest Broker" provision: guarantees that stockbrokers and other providers of investment advice act in the best interest of their clients and disclose all potential conflicts of interest. (Authored Senate amendment on this with Sen. Akaka)
  • Disclosure of CEO-to-worker pay ratio: requires publicly-listed companies to disclose in their annual SEC filing the amount of CEO pay, the amount of the median company worker pay, and the ratio of the two. (Drawn from Menendez's "Corporate Executive Accountability Act," included during Banking Committee work)
  • Avoiding systemic risk: requires financial regulatory agencies to produce regular reports on how they are using capital and liquidity standards to avoid systemic risk. (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Permanent financial education program: Creates a permanent Financial Education and Counseling Program that makes grants available to community groups to provide education. (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Expanded whistleblower protections: more protections for whistleblowers against employer retaliation at subsidiaries and affiliates of companies. (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Greater derivatives trades oversight: Requires all trades (both cleared and uncleared) to be reported to repositories. (Authored Senate amendment on this that was added in conference committee)
  • Office of Minority and Women Advancement: Creates Offices of Minority and Women Advancement at all the major financial regulatory agencies, which will be responsible for all matters of diversity in agency employment and contracting. (Authored Senate amendment on this, modified version added in conference committee)
  • Prohibiting brokers from voting client shares on key compensatory issues: prohibits brokers from voting clients' shares without their consent in votes on "say on pay" and other significant decisions. (Drawn from Menendez's "Corporate Executive Accountability Act," included during Banking Committee work)
  • Municipal bond ratings: helps local governments finance job-creating projects by requiring credit rating agencies to use a universal standard for corporate and municipal bonds. (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Greater disclosure of stock exchange rules (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • FDIC remains regulator for community banks (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Off-sheet balance activity (relates to the type of accounting gimmicks Lehman Brothers used): requires regulators to take all off-balance sheet activities into account when calculating capital and other requirements. (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Shareholders say on executive pay: gives shareholders the right to a nonbinding vote on companies' executive pay policies. (included in Menendez's "Corporate Executive Accountability Act," included during Banking Committee work)
  • Executive pay for performance: requires public companies to have a policy to recover incentive compensation that they erroneously paid to executives because they didn't follow accounting rules, and gives FDIC power to claw back compensation when winding down big companies. (advocated this in Banking Committee)
  • Banning steering payments to mortgage brokers: payments that steered borrowers into subprime mortgages (co-sponsored amendment with Senator Merkley)
  • Disclosure of remittance fees: upfront disclosure of fees charged when consumers send money. (co-sponsored amendment with Senator Akaka)

Provisions that Menendez helped to include that will impact Hispanics:


Language and cultural barriers, as well as limited understanding of financial products, have hindered the ability of Hispanics to make informed financial decisions. In fact, more than 30 percent of Latinos report they do not have a bank account, and are therefore more likely to use check cashers, payday lenders and wire transfer companies. And, of the 70 percent of Latinos who send money abroad, 65 percent still use traditional money remitters, and fees can add up to more than $200 a year. Moreover, nearly one in ten Hispanic homeowners say they have missed a mortgage payment or were unable to make a full payment. Similar numbers of Hispanics have also reported having a home equity loan or a home refinance application denied. In 2009, 3 percent of Latinos said they received a foreclosure notice. That is why expanding financial literacy is critical to the economic prosperity of the Latino community. [NCLR, 2009]. The following two provisions seek to support financial literacy programs and transparency in the industry, which will help address these statistics:

  • Permanent financial education program: Creates a permanent Financial Education and Counseling Program that makes grants available to community groups to provide education. (Included during Banking Committee work)
  • Disclosure of remittance fees: upfront disclosure of fees charged when consumers send money. (co-sponsored amendment with Senator Akaka)


In addition, a provision to promote the advancement of minorities at all the major financial regulatory agencies was also successfully included by Senator Menendez.

  • Office of Minority and Women Advancement: Creates Offices of Minority and Women Advancement at all the major financial regulatory agencies, which will be responsible for all matters of diversity in agency employment and contracting. (Authored Senate amendment on this, modified version added in conference committee)



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