News release: “The crisis of the past 18 months has exposed critical gaps and weaknesses in our financial regulatory system. As risks built up, internal risk management systems, rating agencies and regulators simply did not understand or address critical behaviors until they had already resulted in catastrophic losses. These failures have caused a dramatic loss of confidence in our financial institutions and have contributed to severe recession. Our financial system failed to serve its historical purpose of helping families finance homes and college educations for their children or of providing affordable capital for entrepreneurs and innovators – enabling them to turn new ideas into jobs and growth that raise our living standards. The President’s comprehensive regulatory reform is aimed at reforming and modernizing our financial regulatory system for the 21st century, providing stronger tools to prevent and manage future crises, and rebuilding confidence in the basic integrity of our financial system – for sophisticated investors and working families with 401(k)s alike.”