Asia-Pacific

US Senate passes financial overhaul bill

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-21 09:42

WASHINGTON - US Senate passed Thursday a sweeping financial regulatory bill with a vote of 59 to 39, marking a milestone of the nation's biggest overhaul of financial regulations since the 1930s.

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The bill aims to curb Wall Street's high-risk practices blamed for the global economic meltdown in 2008, solve the systemic risk of the "too big to fail" problem among financial firms, and create a consumer protection agency to better protect Americans.

It will also try to ban commercial banks from trading in speculative investments and impose state interest rate caps on credit card issuers, among other changes.

The bill will then go to a House-Senate conference to reconcile differences in the legislation.