FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Contact: Pamela Russell at 202-618-6433 or prussell@bettermarkets.com
Washington, D.C. – Better Markets and George Washington University Law School’s Business and Finance Law Program will co-host a virtual conference on Tuesday, July 21, the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Dodd-Frank Act, the most sweeping financial reform law since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The program will look back at the consideration, passage, and impact of that historic financial reform law as well as look forward at preventing future crashes, protecting consumers and investors, getting finance to serve society, reducing inequality, and creating broad-based prosperity for all Americans.
Former President Barack Obama will deliver welcoming remarks and former Sen. Chris Dodd and former Rep. Barney Frank will have a keynote discussion moderated by Stephanie Ruhle. Former Citibank/Citigroup CEO John Reed will give an opening address discussing 40 years of banking and finance, including the 2008 financial crash. After remarks by other key Dodd-Frank and financial reform participants, including House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, former Deputy Secretary Treasury/Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, Sen. Elizabeth Warren will conclude the conference with her insights from decades of fighting for economic and financial justice and fairness for all Americans.
Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, says it is especially important now to discuss the importance of Dodd-Frank and financial reform as the country copes with a pandemic that has exposed the structural inequalities that are entrenched in the U.S. economic and financial systems.
“As the country faces social upheaval, political unrest and economic turmoil, it is important to discuss the Dodd-Frank Act and financial reform because those are the means to achieve some of the most important social, political and economic goals facing the country: reducing inequality while creating economic security, opportunity and widespread prosperity for all people,” Kelleher says. “We must change a financial system that is too often little more than a wealth-extraction mechanism for the few rather than a wealth-creation system for the many. Those were the ultimate goals of Dodd-Frank and they are needed now more than ever.”
Jeremiah Pam, director of GW Law’s Business and Finance Law Program adds that, “GW Law is pleased to co-host this important conference, which builds on our longstanding emphasis on the importance of a deep and critical understanding both of business practices in financial centers such as New York and of the complex legal and regulatory world of Washington.”
Participation in the conference is free and open to the public. Registration is available at this link.
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies – including many in finance – to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.com.
GW Law, long recognized as one of the top law schools in the country, pursues a distinctive research and learning mission that engages the leading law and policy questions of our time and provides students with an education that will position them to help change the world. Accredited by the American Bar Association and a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools, GW Law was founded in 1865 and was the first law school in the District of Columbia.
