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White House Focuses on Five Regulatory Reform Priorities

The Obama administration continued to push its priorities Thursday on what provisions should be included in the final regulatory reform bill.

Neal Wolin, Treasury deputy secretary, said the administration was focused on several things, including subjecting retail brokers to a fiduciary duty, preventing auto dealers from being exempted from consumer protection and ensuring the so-called Volcker Rule is part of the final bill.

"As conferees begin the process of reconciling the remaining differences in the two bills, we will continue to fight for the strongest financial reform bill possible," Wolin said at a speech before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's  conference in Baltimore. "And we will oppose any attempts by particular interests to use the conference process as an opportunity to weaken the final bill."

He said the administration will work to include the Volcker Rule's ban of proprietary trading and limit on the size of financial firms. The Volcker Rule is part of the Senate bill but not explicitly included in the House.

Wolin also said that the administration will seek to maintain safeguards to prevent resolution authority being used unless necessary but also maintain flexibility to act in a time of crisis.

In an interview on CNBC before the speech, Wolin once again dodged taking a position on a provision in the Senate bill that would force banks to spin off their derivatives business. "We want to make sure dealers are well regulated, that we have transparency, central clearing and so forth," he said.

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