Is Secrecy Essential to Stock Market Success? Transparency Rules Delayed

When Congress passed a sweeping Wall Street finance reform bill last year it was supposed to shed some sunlight on the activities of hedge funds and the complicated derivatives that led to the financial crisis in 2008.

And one year after the bill's passage, and after tireless lobbying by the banking industry and the New York congressional delegation, the new rules have been postponed for six months. Regulators at the Commodities Future Trading Commission have until the end of December to work out the details and publish a final disclosure rule before companies have to comply.

How the rules are finally written and published will have a great effect on how transparent the financial industry will be forced to be.

"They can have a significant effect," said Dave Levinthal, who is a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, referring to the recent lobbying efforts to water down the final rules.

And while Democrats voted for the financial reform, every single New York lawmaker has come out against the interpretation of the new derivative rules, including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.