If some American banks are too big to fail, others have begun to feel they’re too small to succeed. Just ask Joey Root, the president of First Liberty Bank in Oklahoma City with $310 million in assets.
As Bloomberg reports, small banks like Root’s are being squeezed hard these days, even as the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co. prosper.
Community lenders like Root didn’t have much to do with the buildup of risks that triggered the 2008 crisis. And when the rules were tightened in response, as they had to be, there’s a case to be made that they took a disproportionate hit.
That argument makes a convenient stalking horse for the largest banks—now that the fight over regulation is back on—and Democrats view it with great suspicion. President Donald Trump announced his intention to do a “big number” on the Dodd-Frank Act, the most sweeping financial reform since the Great Depression, before an audience of small business leaders. They’re the kind of borrowers who have been shunted aside, data show.
