Senate passes massive Wall Street regulation bill - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

Senate passes massive Wall Street regulation bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House and Senate must now get to work reconciling different versions of the financial overhaul bill. The measure passed by the Senate yesterday gets tougher on both borrowers and lenders.

It also shines more light on complex but hidden financial instruments, the "derivatives" that made long-odds bets on whether Americans could make payments on mortgages they never should have qualified for.

A key House negotiator is predicting the bill will be on President Barack Obama's desk by the Fourth of July.

It would enact the most sweeping changes in the rules governing big banks since the Great Depression.

Four Republicans broke ranks. Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted in support of the measure.

The legislation aims to prevent a recurrence of the near-meltdown of big Wall Street investment banks and the resulting costly bailouts.