The Obama administration seeks to quickly implement new rules for the financial marketplace but will not “layer new rules on top of old [rules],” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday. Amid rising doubt about the economic recovery's durability and Washington's greater financial-oversight role, Geithner traveled to New York City to meet Mayor Michael Bloomberg and industry chiefs to calm concerns that the new rules will limit competitiveness. “We will move as quickly as possible to bring clarity to the new rules of finance,” Geithner said at an event sponsored by New York University. “We will not risk killing the freedom for innovation that is necessary for economic growth.” President Barack Obama signed a huge package of financial regulatory reforms—prompted by congressional anger at Wall Street's role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis—into law last month, but it remains a work in progress since rules to implement it are still being drafted. Geithner said the Treasury will attempt to accelerate the rule-making process, which would reduce the period of uncertainty for banks and other businesses but also would give lobbyists for the financial industry less time to influence changes. “The rule-writing process traditionally has moved at a frustrating glacial pace,” the Treasury chief said. “We must change that.” Geithner was seeking to calm Wall Street banks that fought against tightening financial rules, saying the changes are necessary to balance protection for consumers and businesses' efforts to create new products and increase profits. “Our system allowed too much freedom for predation, abuse, and excess risk, but as we put in place rules to correct for those mistakes, we have to strive to achieve a careful balance and safeguard the freedom, competition, and innovation that are essential for growth,” Geithner said.
