Via Zero Hedge, we have the following which not even New Labour would have dared to try on here :

If anyone has been curious why the Fed, banks and politicians have all been pushing for the “consumer protection” portion of the Financial Regulation bill, it appears we may have the answer. As CNSNews.com reports, the bill “would create the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and empower it to “gather information and activities of persons operating in consumer financial markets,” including the names and addresses of account holders, ATM and other transaction records, and the amount of money kept in each customer’s account. The new bureaucracy is then allowed to “use the data on branches and [individual and personal] deposit accounts … for any purpose” and may keep all records on file for at least three years and these can be made publicly available upon request.” And quoting verbatim from the Bill: “[T]he Bureau shall have the authority to gather information from time to time regarding the organization, business conduct, markets, and activities of persons operating in consumer financial services markets.” Goodbye privacy, hello 1984.

How long before that one gets adopted by the EU I wonder?

The comments to the above, as always, make for entertaining reading :

When is it OK to start hating my country????

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When they tell you too.

Any other questions?

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Report to Room 101, comrade.

Indeed!