FINANCIAL DEREG MISSES BY A NOSE

Close counts only in horseshoes and hand grenades, but Congress ought to get some credit for coming closer than ever last year to passing a financial deregulation bill.

For the first time, banking reform, which would have repealed Depression-era laws prohibiting banks, securities and insurance companies from engaging in each other’s businesses, was approved by the House, by a one-vote margin. The Senate Banking Committee approved its version late in the session by a 16-2 vote, but the bill ultimately stalled in the full Senate.

With the defeat of financial modernization’s leading advocate, Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., the industry will have to change its game plan to accommodate Sen. Phil Gramm, his replacement as the banking committee chairman.

The Texas Republican was most responsible for killing the bill at the end of the 105th Congress, citing concerns about fair-lending activists and other left-leaning rabble-rousers getting too much of a say in how banks do their business.