The Business Journal North Carolina's John Edwards numbered among the handful of Senate Democrats and Republicans who worked a marathon session to form the 2 a.m. compromise last Friday that appears to have salvaged the banking modernization act.
Supporters tout the agreement.
The act will, if adopted, remove almost all impediments to combining the banking, insurance and securities businesses. But consumer advocates and supporters of the Community Reinvestment Act contend that banking interests have won every important point. Ken H. Thomas, a banking analyst in Miami and author of the CRA Handbook, finds the act almost entirely one-sided. The way that privacy issues are handled is a joke. By 6 p.m. on Oct. 21, banking reform appeared dead.