Trump Signs Bi-Partisan Dodd-Frank Reform - Granite Grok

Trump Signs Bi-Partisan Dodd-Frank Reform

Trump Signs Dodd-Frank reformDodd-Frank was an epic act of overreach based on opportunity. Democrats like federal regulations. The Housing bubble they created burst and ta-da! The Majority Democrat congress saw an opportunity to give their big-bank backers a lift by screwing over all the other banks. Dodd-Frank was born, pushed through Congress, and signed by Obama.

Big Banks and their lobbyists got the Dems to put the screws to smaller competitors and Democrats called it “watchdogging” the financial industry.

Dodd-Frank also created more regulators who make more than the average ‘banker.’ But let’s not get off track. The bill, deliberately or not, punished small players to the benefit of bigger ones.

Dodd-Frank was due for an adjustment.

The new bill has several controversial provisions. Among them: it would relax rules on regional and community banks; free some large banks from the reach of “too big to fail” regulations that placed especially large banks under tighter government supervision; and raise the threshold where banks need to report potentially risky mortgage-lending activity to regulators.

In the Senate, Republicans unanimously supported the measure, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155); 16 Senate Democrats and Angus King (I-Maine) crossed the aisle to support the GOP push to deregulate. A related bill passed the House almost entirely along party lines, with no Democrats supporting the measure and only one Republican opposing it, and the House is expected to pass the Senate bill along similar lines on Tuesday.

Both Shaheen and Hassan supported the Senate Bill, (S.2155) and the House did pass it with Kuster supporting and Shea-Porter voting no.

What’s with all this bi-partisanship?

Dodd-Frankenstein was built to fail, and like ObamaCare, Democrats had to pass it to see what was in it. 

Dodd-Frank imposed 28,000 new restrictions on banking activities, and larger banks proved more capable of complying with them. …

Credit unions and local banks have been disappearing under the pressure, at a rate, according to government figures, of one per day since Dodd-Frank. This has led to a consolidation of the industry, eliminating competition and ultimately boosting the big banks all the more. Consumers may have been victims as well: Three-quarters of banks offered customers free checking with no minimum balance in 2009, a number that had been rising for decades; by 2012 it was below 40 percent, where it remained last year.

Despite the far-left Party Narratives, Dodd-Frank was hurting the business of local banking with extreme prejudice. The reform, takes the boot off their necks, at least a little. According to Barney Frank Yes, that Barney Frank, most of the luggage remains on board.

Barney Frank — a former congressman from Massachusetts and a co-author of the bill — pointed out that 95 percent of the original law is unaffected. While the typical anti–Wall Street progressives such as Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Ver.) have criticized the reform effort as giving too much to Wall Street, Dodd-Frank was designed to protect the American economy from a very specific thing: bank failure. Resisting these changes from the platform of “down with Wall Street” is to forget why Dodd-Frank exists and impose on it a new purpose.

The White House Press Release is a bit more upbeat about the reforms, as was the signing ceremony video.

Here’s the White House Press Release.

REDUCING UNNECESSARY REGULATORY BURDENS: President Donald J. Trump supports legislation to streamline and appropriately tailor our Nation’s financial regulations.

President Trump supports the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155), which will make financial regulations more efficient, effective, and appropriately tailored.

  • 2155 passed both the House and Senate with strong, bipartisan votes.

2155 provides commonsense regulatory relief for community banks, mid-sized banks, regional banks, and credit unions.

  • The legislation will better tailor regulations to the risks posed by these institutions, improving the safety and soundness of the regulatory system.
  • 2155 removes certain regulations that impede the ability of these institutions to serve the financial needs of consumers.

2155 addresses unnecessary regulatory burdens imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act.

  • Small community banks have been unfairly and disproportionately harmed by Dodd-Frank, compared to big banks, which can use their substantial resources to navigate Dodd-Frank’s costly and complex regulations.
  • As a result, the number of community banks in the United States has decreased by 2,000 since 2010, according to statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
  • 2155 will help ensure the viability of community banks by minimizing the competitive advantage Dodd-Frank regulations have conferred on big banks.

2155 preserves the necessary authorities for our financial regulators to ensure the safety and soundness of our financial system.

  • This legislation streamlines and eliminates excessive regulation, but does not eliminate the ability of financial regulators to address reckless or unsafe banking practices.

PROMOTING ECONOMIC GROWTH: Providing community lenders with relief from unnecessary regulatory burdens will help promote even greater economic growth.

The reforms included in S. 2155 will foster economic growth by expanding sound lending.

Freed of unnecessary regulatory costs, community banks and credit unions will be able to direct more lending to small businesses and consumers, especially those in rural areas and small towns.

  • Community banks and credit unions provide essential lending to local businesses, which often have few other available sources of credit.

BENEFITING CONSUMERS: President Trump supports legislation to provide consumers with more tools to protect their privacy.

2155 will help protect consumers’ private information by giving them the ability to place security freezes on their credit files with credit bureaus.

As a result, consumers will be better equipped to protect their credit information in the event of a data breach or incident of identity theft.

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