ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION

Trump transition team names Paul Atkins to CFPB "landing team"

For the latest look at how Donald Trump will try to remake Washington, look at the members of the "landing teams" representing the president-elect at economic agencies during the transition.

The teams work with the outgoing Obama administration at various federal agencies to smooth the transfer of power. They won't necessarily be hired for full-time jobs, Trump transition officials have said. But members do give an indication Trump is sticking to certain past statements and campaign pledges.

Paul Atkins, a former Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a critic of heavy regulation, has been tapped for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau team - a creation of the Dodd-Frank law Trump says he'll dismantle. See more landing team members here.

Myron Ebell, chosen for the Environmental Protection Agency team, leads the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group that says it is "focused on dispelling the myths of global warming." Trump has said global warming was created "by and for the Chinese" and said in a video released Monday he would cancel restrictions on energy production, including on shale and coal projects.

Read more at MARKETWATCH

Trump team member Paul Atkins slams unions, activists in favor of businesses

Paul Atkins has one thing in common with Donald Trump: He doesn't hedge on his opinions.

Atkins, a former financial regulator who is playing a major role in the Trump presidential transition, has railed against labor unions, environmentalists and gay rights groups for challenging public companies through shareholder activism. He has called companies "weenies" who often "cave" to social activists. And he was once the only one of 68 business leaders who refused to endorse a report recommending ways to combat "crony capitalism" in Washington.

Now Atkins, a Republican and onetime SEC member, may be in line to land a top regulatory post in the Trump administration. Atkins is meeting with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence in New York on Monday.

Atkins, the transition's team leader for financial regulatory agencies, is on the same page as Trump on a number of issues, most notably on Dodd-Frank, the sweeping market-reform law that the president-elect says he wants to dismantle.

Atkins has testified in the House three times in the last three years about the side-effects of the 2010 law, which was enacted after the financial crisis and is one of President Barack Obama's signature policies.

But comments of his, recorded at a 2012 Heritage Foundation event, reveal candid criticism of global-warming believers, organized labor and other Democratic allies. That suggests Atkins's influence could help companies well beyond Dodd-Frank deregulation.

"While Paul is in some ways more of an establishment Republican, I would put him in the free-market category," said Thaya Brook Knight, an official at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank. She added that she was "thrilled" with Atkins' position on the Trump team.

Read the entire article at POLITICO

Trump's Financial Agenda: Some Short-Term Signals to Watch By Chris Bruce

Nov. 22 - Bank lawyers and analysts are looking for early signals on an expected push by the Trump administration to redraw the regulatory landscape for financial services.

The most explicit signs so far suggest a headlong clash in some areas, such as potential changes to the Dodd-Frank Act. Although the Trump-Pence transition team's website says its financial services team will be working to "dismantle" the Dodd-Frank Act, incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) says he has the votes to block a repeal of the 2010 law.

Other signs may come not from the transition team or the new administration, but from political rivals. Eric Mogilnicki, a partner with Covington & Burling in Washington, said he's looking for indications of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) influence.

"I would watch the extent to which other senators support Sen. Elizabeth Warren's efforts on Trump administration nominees," Mogilnicki said Nov. 21 "Those hearings and votes will serve as an early test of whether the Democrats in the Senate are going to be united in opposition to the administration."

Fed Vice-Chair Appointment?

Appointments will send clear messages, including one that's been on the shelf for years-a vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve. That post, created by Dodd-Frank but never filled, has been functionally handled by Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo.

Any move to fill the slot would send a loud and clear message that Dodd-Frank rules are open to question, according to Ed Mills, a financial institutions analyst with FBR & Co.

"If they appoint someone, there's no longer a Senate filibuster of those appointments, so you are in effect nominating Tarullo's boss or his replacement," he told Bloomberg BNA. "That would be a change that would fundamentally alter the direction of final rulemaking related to Dodd-Frank."

Read the article at BLOOMBERG

The future isn't bright for highly successful consumer watchdog

Democratic lawmakers pleaded with their Republican counterparts last week not to mess with financial reform in general or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in particular. But that looks like wishful thinking.

A stopgap government funding bill passed in September will expire Dec. 9. It's widely expected that conservative members of Congress will include language in follow-up funding legislation that would change how the bureau operates and the scope of its authority over financial institutions.

"Congress must not include in end-of-year funding legislation any riders designed to repeal, undermine or delay any provisions of Wall Street reform, including those targeted at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate.

They added that "it would be irresponsible for you to use the appropriations process as a replacement for committee consideration of legislation through regular order."

Like that's going to stop lawmakers who have been trying for years to cripple the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

It became law in 2010 and placed a host of regulatory restrictions on banks, mortgage companies and other businesses that were seen as a key cause of the financial meltdown that ushered in the Great Recession.

For consumers, perhaps the most significant aspect of Dodd-Frank was creation of the CFPB, a watchdog agency charged with protecting the interests of credit card holders, home loan recipients and others who in the past may have found themselves largely powerless to stand up against such powerful business interests.

Since it got up and running, the bureau says it has recovered about $12 billion ripped off from consumers by illegal or questionable practices. This month, for example, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Virginia's B&B Pawnbrokers "for deceiving consumers about the actual annual cost of its loans." Read the story at the LA TIMES

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