Dodd-Frank Is Getting Hammered
Washington – The US Senate voted Wednesday to ease banking regulations enacted after the financial crisis that was aimed at protecting taxpayers from fresh economic trauma and new bank bailouts.
The White House quickly praised the Senate passage of the bill, which it said shields financial institutions from “excessive regulation.”
“The bill provides much-needed relief from the Dodd-Frank Act for thousands of community banks and credit unions and will spur lending and economic growth without creating risks to the financial system,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
“Passage of this bill is a big win for Main Street in rural America and our families, farmers, and small businesses,” said Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year in North Dakota, a state Trump won overwhelmingly in his 2016 presidential race. Read more
Dodd-Frank; The Heat is one to reverse it
Seventeen Senate Democrats joined with every Republican in voting to roll back some bank rules.
Many of those Democrats did so as they push for political survival.
The Senate voted 67 to 31 on Wednesday to ease regulations on all but the largest banks, in what would become the biggest rewrite of financial laws since the Dodd-Frank reform act passed after the global financial crisis. The legislation would raise the level at which banks are considered “systemically important” and exempts smaller banks from other rules aiming to curb risky behaviour.
Critics objected to a provision raising the threshold for an institution to be considered “too big to fail” to $250 billion in assets from $50 billion in assets, arguing it opens taxpayers up to more potential liability should a mid-sized institution fail. Under the bill, the entities below $250 billion in assets would no longer have to go through a “stress test” to prove they can survive a crisis.
.The bank legislation left Democrats balancing competing concerns as they battle for control of Congress in November. Some members of the party have long argued smaller banks and lenders in rural areas should face fewer restrictions
“You can’t blame [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer for not wanting to twist the arms of red-state Democrats against home-state banking interests,” former Schumer aide and Hillary Clinton advisor Brian Fallon told The Associated Press. “But from the standpoint of the larger party messaging, it’s a missed opportunity to not strike a bright-line contrast on behalf of consumers.” Read more
Dodd-Frank banking regulations and the 2008 Financial crisis
The Senate on Wednesday passed sweeping changes to a swath of rules adopted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The measure crafted by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, passed 67 to 31, marking a rare occurrence of old-fashioned legislating on a bipartisan bill that nevertheless sharply divided Democrats.
“This legislation threatens to undo important rules protecting us from risk,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the banking panel, said earlier this week on the Senate floor. “This legislation again puts taxpayers on the hook for bailouts.”
Progressives pointed to several critical changes in the bill that would release more than two dozen regional banks from stricter oversight by the Fed and would make it easier for Wall Street banks to fight off existing regulations.
“Buried down in the details of the bill are more landmines for American families”
The bill raises the threshold at which banks are considered too big to fail. That trigger, once set at $50 billion in assets, would rise to $250 billion. It would leave only a dozen US banks — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — facing the strictest regulations. Read more
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