Bank Regulatory Relief To Become Law, Focus Shifts to Agencies
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Key takeaways:
- Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (the “Bill”). The Bill would provide regulatory relief for a range of banking organizations, primarily but not exclusively focused on $250 billion asset and smaller firms. Identical legislation passed the U.S. Senate on March 14, 2018. President Donald J. Trump is expected to sign the Bill into law the near future.
- The Bill is an important step forward in reevaluating the post-crisis regulatory framework and creating tailored supervision and regulation for banking organizations. The relief it provides, however, is limited in scope, focused mostly on the $50 billion asset threshold used in Dodd-Frank Act section 165. The various regulatory agencies will need to undertake a broad review of their regulations and guidance that use the $50 billion asset threshold and which are not affected by the Bill.
- We previously predicted that this legislation would have momentum in Washington (see our prior client update here). We now predict that the Bill will usher in a wave of broader regulatory and supervisory changes, led by the Federal Reserve Board, but also by the other financial regulatory agencies.