Bernanke: Regulators need to balance speed, effectiveness with Dodd-Frank rules

“We need to write the rules in a way that’s workable,” Bernanke said at a forum on small-business lending hosted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. “Secondly, we do have to move as quickly as we can consistent with getting it right.

“The financial system is really important, that’s why we don’t want to strangle it,” he added.

Agreeing that successful rule implementation is key, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) called Dodd-Frank “a work in progress.” Warner was a key negotiator during the debate on financial reform legislation, and Thursday acknowledged that some small changes may be needed, but that overall it could be a success.

“If this is appropriately implemented and tweaked where it overreaches, this is a pretty good framework going forward,” he said.

But Thomas Bell, chairman of the board of directors at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was not nearly as optimistic about the law.

“It’s a bad bill with never ending unintended consequences,” he said on the same panel as Warner and Bernanke. “This is a smorgasbord … it’s a big mistake.”

However, he stopped short of calling for an outright repeal of a bill, an idea currently being pushed by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

“We can come up with a solution that works for everybody,” he said. “We don’t like what we’ve got right now.”