View from the Hill: Women Lobby for Consumer Financial Protection Agency

As Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair continues to push for an agency for the financial protection of consumers as part of an overhaul of the financial system, a group of women executives are headed to Washington to speak to a group of senators about why the agency would be important for women consumers and business leaders.

On Tuesday, ten senior women executives from Wall Street and major companies, including members of 85 Broads, a global network of 20,000 women founded by Janet Hanson, who worked for Goldman Sachs [GS] at its New York headquarter, which is at 85 Broad Street.

These ten executives, including Deborah Buresh Jackson, a veteran investment banker and a former vice president of global media relations at JPMorgan Chase & Co. [JPM]; Jean W. Solomon,  a real estate executive; and Jennifer S. Myers, a managing partner and co-founder of Global Compliance Risk Management Corp, will tell Congress how the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency will benefit women. These women will meet with Senators or their staff, including Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, Sen. Herb Kohl, Sen. Bob Menendez, Sen. Tim Johnson, and Sen. Kristin Gillibrand.

“Too many women have paid the price for an outdated regulatory system that left our financial system vulnerable to collapse and left consumers without adequate protections,” according to a press release issued Tuesday by Americans United for Change, a movement bringing together independent voices for new policy priorities and leadership.

With women at a higher risk for retirement insecurity, according to research from the National Institute on Retirement Security, and 32% more likely to have received subprime mortgages of all types than men, regardless of income, women need the protections that a well-regulated financial system can offer.

Tuesday’s lobby day is a follow up to a conference held in New York on Jan. 18, where over 250 women executives attended to learn about and support the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

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Compliance Law and regulation
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