Treasury Report Calls for Sweeping Changes to Financial Rules

Treasury Report Calls for Sweeping Changes to Financial Rules
“By streamlining the regulatory system, we can make the U. S. capital markets a true source of
economic growth which will harness American ingenuity and allow small businesses to grow.”
Rob Nichols, chief executive of the American Bankers Association, called the Treasury recommendations “practical, reasonable and achievable.”
“Many of the recommendations in the report would make it easier to raise capital, meet the needs of bank customers operating domestically
and abroad, and focus regulatory processes on effective supervision without harming the economy,” Mr. Nichols said in a statement.
Mike Calhoun, the president of the Center for Responsible Lending, said he was skeptical of claims
that regulations stifle the economy, pointing to high profits and substantial share buybacks by banks as evidence that the institutions are “awash in cash these days.”
The Treasury report is “more strategic” than other efforts to scale back oversight,
but it is “still the wrong prescription for expanding the economy, and a dangerous one,” he said.
Both the June report and the one released on Friday — as well as two more expected in the coming months — originated from an executive order
that President Trump signed in February asking Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to reposition financial rules to better match the administration’s aims.
The Trump administration is again taking aim at the Dodd-Frank Act, releasing a Treasury Department report on Friday
that recommended a vast reworking of Wall Street rules adopted in response to the financial crisis.