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Financial Market Investigation, Oversight, and Reform Act of 2008

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Official summary

Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 29, 2008

Financial Market Investigation, Oversight, and Reform Act of 2008 - Establishes the Commission on Financial Regulatory Reform to review the nation's existing financial regulatory structure and its contribution to the stability or instability of financial markets.

Requires the Commission to review: (1) bank holding companies, financial holding companies, commercial banks, investment banks, thrifts, credit unions, and industrial loan companies; (2) payment and settlement systems; (3) hedge funds, private equity funds, and markets for alternative investments; (4) special purpose vehicles and off-balance sheet financing for financial companies; (5) securitization of mortgages and other assets; (6) exchange-based, electronic, and over-the-counter markets for financial derivative products; (7) the mortgage finance industry, including mortgage brokers and mortgage lending institutions; (8) equity markets, including short-selling practices, and commodity futures markets; and (8) the insurance industry and its role in the financial markets.

Requires the Commission to report to the President and Congress on its findings and recommendations for corrective measures.

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Establishes a multidisciplinary Joint Select Committee on Financial Market Oversight Reform and Investigations to investigate the causes of the financial turmoil and propose corrective actions to the appropriate committees of jurisdiction.

Establishes the Office of the Inspector General for Financial Markets Oversight to: (1) conduct, supervise, and coordinate investigations into whether ethics violations or conflicts of interest between regulators and their regulated entities or markets may have affected agency decision-making between January 2002 and August 2008; and (2) use the forum of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency and the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency to share findings and best practices with regards to ethics, conflicts of interest, oversight, and accountability.

Read the summary on Congress.gov
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Who introduced it

Sen. Cantwell, Maria [D-WA] · D–WA

Committees

  • Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
3 cosponsorship records, including any withdrawals

Actions

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  1. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

  2. Introduced in Senate

Bill text & related measures

Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.

Related bills identified by Congress.gov

No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.

Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.

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