Tester rolls out plan to make sure Wall St. plays by rules

Saying the time has come to bring "some Montana common sense" to Wall Street, Senator Jon Tester helped announce a plan to reform America's financial industry and to guard middle-class Americans against the "greed and corruption that drove our economy into the ditch."

With his colleagues on the Senate Banking Committee, Tester discussed draft legislation aimed at reforming the rules of Wall Street to prevent America's financial industry from collapsing again.

"The crisis we face is due to a few bad actors who took advantage of a system that had no refs on the field," said Tester, the only Senate Democrat to vote against last year's bailouts of Wall Street and the U.S. automotive industry.

He went on to add, "This is a good first step toward concrete re¬form that will protect consumers, promote financial stability and bring back investor confidence to make sure the folks on main street benefit too."

Tester and his colleagues on the Banking Committee have held dozens of hearings over the past year on reforming the financial industry.

Tester said his priorities for financial industry reform include:

• Making sure that no banks are "too big to fail."
• Creating a level playing field for all financial companies so they are following the same rules.
• Protecting Montana's community banks and credit unions against excessive fees or burdens, noting that no Montana banks have failed during the financial crisis.