Bank lobbyists who opened the Trump era with great expectations for sweeping regulatory reform are privately striking an increasingly dismal tone as hopes for a quick and thorough rewrite of Dodd-Frank legislation dim, Reuters reports.
The lobbyists say they are facing the reality that bank deregulation legislation will have to wait in line behind other bigger priorities such as health care reform and taxes.
“It’s so disheartening,” says one financial industry representative who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity. “I was excited for this year, and I’m not anymore.”
Even if Congress does look to rewrite the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, it is unlikely to muster enough votes in the U.S. Senate for the strong across-the-board overhaul industry leaders had hoped for, roughly a half dozen lobbyists tell Reuters.
Banks say that Dodd-Frank, which was conceived in response to the financial crisis, hobbles their growth.
But the lobbyists see short-term hopes for less stringent oversight by agencies like the Federal Reserve or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stymied by the slow pace of President Donald Trump’s appointments for those agencies.
The private dejection is in contrast to the upbeat message being delivered to some 1,500 bankers gathered in Washington this week for visits to Congress and speeches from policymakers at an American Bankers Association conference.
“This year poses the biggest opportunity that we have seen in a long time to see some action on much-needed regulatory relief,” ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols said.
