John Sarbanes: “for the fourth time in 11 years, the Senate is debating legislation to modernize the structure of the financial services…”

“for the fourth time in 11 years, the Senate is debating legislation to modernize the structure of the financial services industry. We are addressing this issue because we want our financial services statutes to keep pace with forces that are changing the financial marketplace, forces such as globalization, technological change, and the development of new products. Many experts agree that the time has come to allow affiliations between banks, securities firms, and insurance companies; in other words, those actors within the financial services industry that heretofore have been kept separate by existing statutes--although those statutes have, to some extent, been eroded either by regulatory decisions or by court decisions. It is, therefore, felt that financial services modernization legislation would be useful in helping to set the structure within which financial institutions are to operate, to provide a certainty and a stability that is now missing under the existing arrangements, and which is not altogether clear along the borderline of what activities are permitted and what activities are not permitted. Now, we have not only no objection, we are supportive of the effort to allow these affiliations to take place within the financial services industry. Therefore, we are anxious to obtain the enactment of financial services modernization legislation.”