Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, the lead negotiators on financial overhaul legislation, predicted President Barack Obama will sign the bill into law by July 4.
Talks to resolve differences between the Senate measure passed Thursday and the House version approved in December won't take longer than a month, Mr. Frank, D-Mass., said Friday after he and Mr. Dodd, D-Conn., met with Mr. Obama at the White House.
The Senate and House bills include varied provisions to require registration of hedge funds, derivatives trading restrictions and credit-rating supervision.
“The two bills really are very close to each other,” Mr. Dodd told reporters after the meeting, which also included Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers. “There's not a great deal of difference.”
The Senate approved its bill by a 59-39 vote after a month of debate, advancing the biggest overhaul of U.S. financial regulations since the 1930s. Messrs. Obama, Frank and Dodd met to discuss the next step for the rules he proposed in response to the 2008 credit crisis.
Mr. Frank dismissed claims that large financial institutions would be able to strip out what they view as the more onerous provisions of the bill during the House-Senate negotiations.
Separately, CalPERS in a statement issued Friday praised the Senate for passing the bill and singled out Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for his efforts to include corporate governance reform in the legislation.
“This is a welcome and needed action to restore trust and accountability in our financial markets,” Rob Feckner, board president of the $204 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, said in the statement. “Wall Street reform will go far in protecting the retirement security of the public employees we represent, California taxpayers, and every American whose dreams depend on a marketplace that puts the needs of investors and shareowners ahead of corporate greed, irresponsibility and corruption.”
Also in the statement, Joe Dear, CalPERS chief investment officer, thanked Mr. Schumer. “The Senate-passed bill removes any doubt that the Securities and Exchange Commission can issue rules that ensure institutional investors can access the corporate proxy — the single most powerful tool to improve corporate governance in America's boardrooms. Proxy access is a meaningful way to boost accountability and transparency on corporate boards.”
News Editor Rick Baert contributed to this story.
