Frank pressing for new rules for Wall Street

House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is reiterating his desire to quickly impose new rules on Wall Street.

“There’s a whole lot of new financial activity that’s going on that’s caused some damage and done some good. But it’s gone on without rules,” Frank said Wednesday evening on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.”

{mosads}“And the one thing I am most confident about is we know how to stop this from happening again, banning the bad subprime loans, restricting the excessive kinds of leverage they’ve had.”

Frank added: “We will very soon be adopting a set of regulations. We’re going to be doing essentially now what Franklin Roosevelt had to do with the New Deal, what Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson had to do around the turn in the last century.”

Frank did not get into specifics, but is working on a plan to set up a broad regulator that would have an eye on the entire financial system. Frank and President Obama have both indicated they’d like to see an outline of possible plans by April, when the heads of the G20 club of countries are due to meet in London.

In a separate interview Thursday morning, Frank noted the Obama administration will operate under different rules in managing the final $350 billion in funding for the controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program. He said this will demonstrate the difference between the Obama administration and President Bush.

“The Treasury Department has agreed to impose some very strict rules. And I think it would be a grave mistake to assume that the Obama administration is going to be as lax as the Bush administration. Indeed, Secretary [Timothy] Geithner has already announced much stricter rules,” Frank said on CBS’s “Early Show.”

Geithner earlier this month unveiled a set of rules for banks and other financial institutions accepting TARP funding. The rules would bolster disclosure and transparency requirements designed to force banks to use TARP funds to increase lending.

Frank said the Obama administration has set aside a “significant chunk” of the money to help reduce home foreclosures, and new rules will also require TARP recipients to demonstrate the amount of credit they will be able to extend with the new funds.

Frank’s comments came after his committee heard from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday. Bernanke said he had initiated a review of the Fed’s own disclosure policies after Frank raised questions about the power vested in the independent body.