Financial group spent $2.66M lobbying in 1Q...$2.66 million should be enough to kick out some teeth in financial reform

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Financial Services Roundtable, a group representing big banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies, spent $2.66 million in the first quarter to lobby on legislation to overhaul financial regulations and an array of other issues.

That's up from the $2.26 million that the group spent in the year-ago period, and the $1.8 million it spent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The group lobbied Congress and federal agencies on financial reform and on measures affecting credit cards, mortgages and foreclosure, student loans, insurance, immigration, small business, retirement investments, data privacy, taxes, trade and disaster planning.

The legislation to rewrite the financial rulebook is now in a House-Senate conference to reconcile the two houses' differing versions. Key lawmakers have said they hope to deliver a final measure to President Barack Obama by July 4.

In addition to the House and Senate, the financial industry group also had lobbying contacts with the White House, the departments of Treasury, Commerce, Justice and Transportation, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Small Business Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a disclosure form filed April 15 with the Senate's public records office.

Among the group's members are Allstate Corp., Aon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.

Grandpa: $2.66 million will prove to be an adequate amount to knock out many teeth in the finanical reform bill. Once again, our elected "representatives" will simply sell our children and grandchildren down the river. THINK GRANDPA IS SIMPLY BEING CYNICAL?

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) 6/21/10:  Visa Inc. (V 81.07, +4.03, +5.23%) and Mastercard Inc. (MA 223.49, +9.23, +4.31%) shares climbed Monday afternoon as U.S. politicians reached an agreement on the regulation of interchange, or "swipe" fees on credit and debit card transactions. Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durban said in a statement that an agreement was reached on his amendment regulating such fees. The new language is expected to be eventually accepted by the group of politicians that are trying to craft a final Wall Street reform bill by early July. "We were able to reach an agreement which makes minor changes to strengthen consumer protections and bring competition to a market where there is none," Durban said in a statement. Visa shares gained 5.2% to $81.08 while Mastercard rose 4.4% ($9.00+) to $223.75 in afternoon action Monday.

When credit card companies stock price launches after news pertaining to financial reform, you can safely assume the lobbying extortion money was most effective!