WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday the central bank is taking steps to put the Dodd-Frank Act into action.
In testimony prepared for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Bernanke said 300 members of the bank's staff are working on implementing the financial overhaul that was passed as a reaction to the 2008 financial system meltdown.
Bernanke said the staff was "providing significant support to the Financial Stability Oversight Council," the multiagency team assigned the task of monitoring systemic risks to the financial system, including oversight of non-bank companies.
The Fed also is working on rules "to ensure that activities prohibited by the Volcker rule are divested or terminated in the time period required," he said.
The rule, named after former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, is designed to restrict investments taken with a bank's own funds.
Bernanke said the Fed had also made "substantial progress toward a framework for transferring Federal Reserve staff members to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the new agency designed to regulate financial products."
"To conclude, the Dodd-Frank Act is a major step forward for financial regulation in the United States," Bernanke said, pledging the bank would work cooperatively with other U.S. and foreign regulators.
