Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew criticized Congress Thursday for approving a change to part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.
Speaking at the beginning of a meeting for the Financial Stability Oversight Council , Lew said the Obama Administration opposed Congress' inclusion of a provision that repealed a part of Dodd-Frank that forced bank holding companies to conduct derivatives activities in non-bank subsidiaries to reduce the risk of a taxpayer bailout.
"It was a step in the wrong direction," Lew said, but added that much of the architecture of the law remained intact, and was already changing the derivatives market. President Barack Obama has said he's still committed to fully implementing Dodd-Frank.
The provision was included in Congress' spending bill passed over the weekend to keep the government open, but was actively opposed by Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio , who will be the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee next session.
