Barney Frank: “Madam Speaker, this is an example of sensible regulation because sensible regulation includes deregulation when that is…”

“Madam Speaker, this is an example of sensible regulation because sensible regulation includes deregulation when that is appropriate. The Committee on Financial Services reported this bill out last year. It passed the House. Surprisingly it managed not to make it through the Senate. The efficiency of that body failed us on this occasion apparently, but we are going to try again. We believe in regulation, and this is an important area where we provide information to our financial detectives, and it is especially important with regard to terrorist financing. But too much regulation can defeat the purpose for which regulation is intended, and we have a situation now where the banks are required to report every year on customers' transactions of $10,000 or more. Now, one of the things this bill would do is give the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to increase a dollar figure that has been left unadjusted for inflation for too long. More importantly, we are talking now about the exemption that is given to what we call seasoned customers of the bank.”