SIFMA CEO Reacts to Obama Reelection

The head of SIFMA said he was looking forward to working with President Barack Obama on the ongoing implementation of financial reform legislation following Obama's re-election.

The financial services industry has been highly critical of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law but at SIFMA's annual meeting recently, the group's president and chief executive officer Tim Ryan said  that SIFMA has never supported the repeal of the law. But many in the financial services industry have expressed disappointment with the sluggish pace of rulemaking stemming from the law as well as the potential for much higher costs for firms as a result of greater regulation. Many rulemaking deadlines have been missed.

In his comments responding to the outcome on Tuesday, Ryan said: “We look forward to continuing to work with President Obama and a new Congress on a host of important and immediate issues.  With the election now over, it is vital that we return to the work at hand, namely, the continued implementation of Dodd-Frank and addressing the fiscal cliff."

Ryan's statement further said: “With the beginning of his second term in office, President Obama, his administration and regulators should take time to review the goals of Dodd-Frank—which were to create a safer and stronger financial system—to ensure that the process is helping achieve that and if not, find a better approach to getting it done.Another important area that is critical to economic growth and our recovery is ensuring that both Democrats and Republicans come together and address the fiscal cliff. The potentially negative market consequences of not dealing with this issue are simply too great to ignore.”

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