Banks Are Racking Up Wins Even Before Trump Is Back in White House
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/business/economy/trump-bank-oversight.html
Banks Are Racking Up Wins Even Before Trump Is Back in White House
Lobbying by banks helped torpedo a major proposal, and a top regulator announced this week that he would step down from a leadership role.
By Jeanna Smialek
Jan. 9, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
Banks are on a winning streak, one thats poised to intensify as President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.
Biden-appointed regulators at the Federal Reserve and other agencies presided over a relatively fruitless era of bank oversight. They tried to enact stricter rules for the nations biggest banks, hoping to create a stronger safety net for the financial system even if it cut into bank profits.
But the rules were considered so onerous including by some top Fed officials that they died of their own ambitions.
As proposals stalled, the foundation for existing bank oversight became increasingly shaky thanks to bank-friendly courts. During his first term, Mr. Trump appointed a slate of conservative judges who then slowly but significantly shifted the legal environment against strict federal oversight.
The result? Big banks have been notching major victories that could allow them to avoid regulatory checks that were drawn up after the 2008 financial crisis, when weaknesses at the worlds largest lenders nearly toppled the global economy.
And with Mr. Trump once again poised to run the White House, analysts predict that the regulations and supervisory practices that are supposed to prevent Americas biggest and most interconnected financial institutions from making risky bets could be further chipped away in the months ahead.
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