Geithner: We Will Fight Financial Reform ‘Forces’

Treasury Secretary ""Timothy Geithner"":http://www.treasury.gov/about/Pages/Secretary.aspx criticized opponents Thursday for their efforts to weaken and ultimately repeal large chunks of financial reform by the Obama administration.

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Without naming critics, he veiled any references to political and legislative maneuvers in recent years to delay and rid the U.S. legal code of financial reform enacted by the Obama administration in the wake of the recession.

""The forces working against reform are trying a range of different strategies... to slow the pace of implementation in the hopes of watering it down,"" he told reporters.

Geithner included blocks in the way of appointees, slashed funds, policy riders tucked into appropriations bills, and attempts to repeal laws in the form of new legislation.

""If these efforts to weaken reform are successful, then consumers will be more vulnerable to future abuse, businesses will be more vulnerable to future contractions

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in credit availability caused by financial mistakes, and the economy will be more vulnerable to devastating crises,"" he added.

Talk of repeal continues to mount for the Dodd-Frank Act, the only signature law written and passed by the administration three years after the financial crisis.

Sources speaking with _MReport_ for a past story said that a recent announcement by ""Rep. Barney Frank"":http://frank.house.gov/ (D-Massachusetts) that he plans to retire only fuels interest among Republicans and trade groups with a desire to strike Dodd-Frank from the record.

More Republican presidential candidates hold fast to their pledges at repeal of Dodd-Frank, often associating the law with onerous regulation unhelpful to struggling businesses and markets, such as the housing sector.

Richard Cordray, director-nominee to lead the ""Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"":http://www.consumerfinance.gov/, remains notably locked in a confirmation process hampered by opposition from 44 Republican senators.

Geithner said that the Obama administration means to fight any attempts to weaken and otherwise repeal important overhaul measures.

""This challenge is about a fundamental obligation of government... to provide and enforce the system of incentives and constraints necessary to create a financial system that helps people save for retirement, borrow to buy a house or a car or pay for college, allows businesses to finance productive investments, protects people from predation and abuse, and does not leave the taxpayer responsible for paying for the mistakes of banks,"" he said.