The president of the National Association of Young Entrepreneurs, Manuel Diez Cabral, alerted deputies not to rush the financial risk bill through Congress as received from the Senate, as changes have been made that contradict the spirit of the law. Deputies have been told they must approve the bill by today because it is a requirement for the resumption of the IMF stand-by arrangement. Diez says that the bill’s aim was to bolster the regulatory framework for banking supervision to prevent future banking crises. He highlighted that, instead, the financial risk bill as modified by the Senate grants extraordinary powers to the President. Diez says that this opens the way for a repeat of the unbridled monetary expansion that came about when the Central Bank was authorized by the President to opt to guarantee all the money deposited in the collapsed banks – in violation of the current Monetary and Finance Code, which set a deposit limit of RD$500,000. Diez explains that the modified financial risk bill would legalize the discretionary powers of the President to intervene and salvage banks, and sets no new limits. This power exercised in the past led to the present financial crisis. Furthermore, Diez criticized that the bill increased the deposit required for loans from financial institutions abroad from 5 to 15%, indicating this would make foreign financing more expensive and thus Dominican companies less competitive. Thus, he explains, the bill would be a step backwards to improving the banking supervision regulatory framework.