The US Congress on Tuesday passed a partial rollback of banking rules put in place to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, sending the bill for Donald Trump’s signature, in what amounts to a major step in the administration’s plan to return to a more deregulated banking system.
While the measure does not entirely repeal the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, as many Republicans wanted, the legislation lifts the threshold at which banks are deemed too big to fail and releases smaller and medium sized banks from stricter capital and planning requirements.
Critics argued that the measures would increase the prospect of future taxpayer bailouts and rejected claims that the post-crisis measures had subjected financial services industries to excessive compliance regulations that stifled growth.
Support for the legislation split Democrats. “This is not a bill that benefits consumers. It is a big-bank bonanza,” the congressman Al Green, of Texas, said in debate before the vote.
The bill would make a fivefold increase, to $250bn, in the level of assets at which banks are deemed to pose a potential threat if they failed. Among the institutions expected to benefit from the change in threshold are BB&T, SunTrust Banks, Fifth Third Bank and American Express.
Congressman Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican who heads the House financial services committee, said “Main Street” – ie consumer banks – “have been suffering for years under the weight” of the Dodd-Frank regulations.
“Help is on the way,” Hensarling said. “Today is an important day in the history of economic opportunity in America.”
US banks’ net income climbed to $56bn in the January-March quarter, a 27.5% increase from a year earlier, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report
