Jul 28, 2010

"As the battle over toughened financial restrictions moves to a new front, the regulatory agencies that will create hundreds of new rules for the nation's banks will face a lobbying blitz from companies intent on softening the blow.  And many of the lobbyists the regulators hear from will be their former colleagues, The New York Times's Eric Lichtblau reports from Washington.

Nearly 150 lobbyists registered since last year used to work in the executive branch at financial agencies, from lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission to Federal Reserve bankers, according to data analyzed for The New York Times by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. In addition, dozens of ex-government lawyers, who are not registered as lobbyists, are now scouring the financial regulations on behalf of corporate clients.

'The headhunters are out in force' to recruit former government regulators as lawyers and lobbyists, said Lawrence Kaplan, who was a senior lawyer at the government's Office of Thrift Supervision and now works on banking regulation at the Washington law firm Paul Hastings."

Click to go to The New York Times website and read the entire article.