For a bank seeking relief, Regions Financial is having a good year. But as The Washington Post reports, the Alabama-based financial institution’s year could soon get even better if Congress moves forward with plans to ease regulations put in place by the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Regions, which operates in more than a dozen states—including Louisiana—and has more than $120 billion in assets, is growing at a quick pace and is on track to post near record profits.
But the bank has suddenly found itself in the middle of the debate over Dodd-Frank—the bill held up as an example for all that is right and wrong about redrawing lines for how to regulate banks that many say are too big to fail.
Supporters and banking lobbyists say the current regulatory regime unfairly punishes regional banks such as Regions with rules aimed at reining in global behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase.
Citing the complaints of a Regions executive that the industry spends $2 billion a year complying with regulations, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sponsor of the bill, said on the Senate floor last week, “These are not just empty numbers—there are real economic consequences.”
But the deregulatory push comes at a time when Regions and the banking industry, in general, are doing well.
“Banks are going around pleading poverty and begging for regulatory relief,” says Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, a nonpartisan advocacy group that advocates for tighter rules. “That is a hard argument to swallow when their profits are so high.”
