Candidates' records thin on Wall Street oversight, control

WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have called for tougher regulations and more oversight of Wall Street.

However, they don't have long records on the subject.

Republican McCain, a 22-year Senate veteran, has been known as a stronger advocate for deregulation than the rhetoric he's used recently. Democrat Obama, in his fourth Senate year, has tried to crack down on mortgage lenders but his legislation has not come up for a vote.

Some examples:

• In 1999, when Congress was debating the final version of a bipartisan bill to lift Depression-era rules on the banking and financial services industry, McCain missed the vote and was campaigning for the White House. The measure allowed banks and securities firms to compete more directly. McCain supported an earlier Senate bill.

• McCain fought unsuccessfully in 2002 to require companies to disclose stock options for top executives.

• In 2005, McCain co-sponsored a bill to restrict trading in existing mortgages and mortgage-backed securities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It never got a final vote.

• Obama introduced bills in 2006 and 2007 to crack down on predatory mortgage lending practices, making such transactions felonies punishable by up to 35 years in prison. The measure has not come up for a vote.

• Obama was one of 13 Democratic co-sponsors of a bill to create a national licensing system for mortgage-loan originators. A version was blended into a mortgage reform bill signed by President Bush in July.

Neither candidate "has much of a record" on Wall Street rules, said Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute. He notes that Obama has "not been on the relevant committees," and McCain has been "perfectly happy to regulate the bad guys as he sees them" but has been focused on tobacco companies and the campaign-finance system.