The most sweeping overhaul of US financial regulation since the Great Depression, including tough new rules for the derivatives market, was slated for a crucial test vote in the US Senate today.
As Wall Street reeled from more revelations out of the US government fraud case against Goldman Sachs, Democrats seized the political initiative to advance their bill, months in the making and said to be 1,340 pages in length.
The future shape and profitability of the banking industry hangs in the balance, more than two years since the worst financial crisis in generations unleashed reforms worldwide.
The stakes are high for president Barack Obama. Since the recent passage of his landmark healthcare restructuring, he has sharply criticised Wall Street in speeches backing the Democratic financial regulation bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has set a procedural vote to begin debate on the bill for late today. Republicans have vowed to vote to block consideration of it, although closed-door talks about a bipartisan agreement carried on.
Yesterday, sources told Reuters that the bill will include provisions that would require banks to spin off business units involved with trading swaps, which is a type of financial contract implicated in the fall of bailed-out insurer AIG.
Sources said the bill will contain proposals being put forward by Democratic Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, whose approach to new rules for the unpoliced, $450-trillion over-the-counter derivatives market has been harder-hitting than earlier proposals.
Other controversial parts of the Democrats' bill include forming a new consumer protection watchdog and devising a new government process for dismantling troubled financial firms.
With an eye to ending bailouts of 'too big to fail' firms, like Goldman Sachs, Democrats want a new "orderly liquidation" process. As proposed, it aims to protect taxpayers from costly bailouts, like that of AIG, while shielding the economy from shock bankruptcies, like Lehman Brothers' 2008 collapse.
The chief antagonists in the debate - Democratic Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and Republican Senator Richard Shelby - did not meet yesterday, aides said.
Mr Shelby, the banking committee's top Republican, told ABC's "Good Morning America" program today that lawmakers would continue to discuss the bill but that a deal was not imminent.
"I don't believe we'll have a deal today," he said, adding that he would meet with Mr Dodd at 2pm (1800 GMT). "I believe we're going to get a good bill, but that's what we want, we want a strong bill," he said.
Republicans have said they oppose the Democrats' bill on various grounds, including calling it a costly overreach of government that could reduce credit flows.
Intensified efforts in Congress and from Mr Obama on reform have come amid a high-profile fraud case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Goldman Sachs.
Goldman released three-year-old emails over the weekend that showed bond trader Fabrice Tourre wrote of the impending collapse of the subprime mortgage market and how he was masterminding ways at Goldman to make money from it.
Mr Tourre is the only individual charged by the SEC in its case. Goldman released the emails as it readies for its appearance before a Senate panel tomorrow.
Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and Tourre are slated to testify, with other former and current executives.
Reuters