NEWS: House voted to kill Dodd-Frank. Now what?

ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION

NEWS: June 13

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House votes to kill Dodd-Frank. Now what? CNN MONEY

House lawmakers on Thursday advanced the "crown jewel" of the GOP-led regulatory reform effort, effectively gutting the Dodd-Frank financial regulations that were put in place during the Obama administration.

The Republican bill, called the Financial Choice Act, passed the House 233-186 along party lines. The bill seeks to undo significant parts of the 2010 financial reform law.

Crafted by House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, the bill passed despite vehement objections by Democrats to preserve the sweeping law aimed at preventing another financial crisis and protecting American consumers.

"Every promise of Dodd-Frank has been broken," said Hensarling following his bill's approval. "We will replace economic stagnation with a growing healthy economy."

Republicans criticize the Dodd-Frank regulations as the primary driver for anemic economic growth in the U.S. and for enshrining too-big-to-fail, which they say paves the way for future taxpayer bailouts of the country's biggest banks.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Hensarling's bill would keep the GOP's promise to cut onerous financial regulations in order to help create jobs and foster economic growth.

"We see the Financial Choice Act as the crown jewel of this effort," Ryan said at a press conference. "The Dodd-Frank Act has had a lot of bad conseque nces for our economy, but most of all in the small communities across our country." Read more at CNN MONEY

House Votes to Adopt CHOICE Act, Which Would Effectively Gut the CFPB

As expected, yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Financial CHOICE Act, which would significantly alter - among other things - the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The bill passed along party lines; it is not expected to survive the Senate.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) sponsored and has been aggressively promoting the CHOICE Act as essential to rolling back onerous regulations imposed by Dodd-Frank. He claims that Dodd-Frank has contributed to the worst economic recovery of the last 70 years.

With a tagline "growth for all, bailouts for none," Hensarling says the Act would replace bailouts with bankruptcy, and would provide regulatory relief for small banks and credit unions. The following are the key principles of the Act:

Taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions must end and no company can remain too big to fail;
Both Wall Street and Washington must be held accountable;
Simplicity must replace complexity, because complexity can be gamed by the well-connected and abused by the Washington powerful;
Economic growth must be revitalized through competitive, transparent, and innovative capital markets;
Every American, regardless of their circumstances, must have the opportunity to achieve financial independence;
Consumers must be vigorously protected from fraud and deception as well as the loss of economic liberty; and
Systemic risk must be managed in a market with profit and loss

Read more at insideARM

It's Time to Finally Let Walmart Open its Own Bank. FORTUNE

On a day in which many eyes were on Former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday quietly passed the Financial CHOICE Act, which is the Republicans' proposed revision of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and reform of financial regulation. It will next go to the Senate, which will surely get more attention as Senators on both sides consider major alterations to the CHOICE Act.

Although the CHOICE Act's tagline reads, "Opportunity for All, Bailouts for None," there is a large elephant that isn't in the room when financial regulation is being discussed-but really should be: Walmart.

Starting in the mid 1990s, Walmart made two separate efforts to enter banking in the U.S., but legislators and regulators kept the door closed. After its second effort was rebuffed in 2007, Walmart gave up in the U.S., but has subsequently provided consumer-banking services in Canada and Mexico.

As the Senate begins its consideration of the CHOICE Act, there is a prime opportunity for lawmakers to revisit the question of allowing commercial firms-such as Walmart-to enter banking. Why?

U.S. economic policy has long held dear the notion of encouraging new business and innovations so that the benefits of entry into the marketplace can be enjoyed by consumers. Of course, American policy treats banking as special. And reco nciling the specialness of banking and the presence of Walmart in banking is necessary. Read more at FORTUNE

Here Are All The Financial Reforms That Will Disappear With Dodd-Frank. FORBES

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Financial CHOICE Act, a Republican-led financial reform effort aimed at rolling back the 2010 Dodd Frank Act, enacted under President Barack Obama.

Dodd Frank was a sweeping re-write of U.S. financial laws in the wake of the financial crisis, which altered everything from the trading of stocks and bonds to the way in which large banks are regulated. President Trump, however, believes regulations are slowing the U.S. economy and has proposed drastic cuts as a centerpiece of his agenda.

The Act has seven principals:

1. Taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions must end and no company can remain too big to fail.

2. Both Wall St. & Washington must be accountable

3. Simplicity must replace complexity

4. Economic growth must be revitalized

5. Every American must be able to achieve financial independence

6. Consumers must be protected

7. Systemic risk must be managed via profit & loss

These rollbacks will have real policy implications. Here are the reform items Wall Street is watching as the House-approved bill moves to the Senate.

The Act proposes to restructure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that monitors financial products from loans to high-fee investment products.

Read more at FORBES

The Finance 202: Trump team orphans House Dodd-Frank rollback. THE WASHINGTON POST

It's been four days since House Republicans approved their proposal to dismantle regulations of the financial industry. It might as well have been as many years. Every interested party besides the House GOP itself is already treating the package, officially the Financial CHOICE Act, like ancient history.

Network news broadcasts have not mentioned the House vote; their cable counterparts have acknowledged it only in passing.

Lobbying groups for Wall Street heavies have handled the bill, in the words of one industry lawyer, as if they were "humoring a dotty rich grandfather to avoid being disinherited." Those groups - the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association - issued tepid statements of support for moving the process along without endorsing the actual measure. And in detailed submissions to the Senate Banking Committee, made earlier this year and posted online last week, they didn't discuss the House approach at all.

Most notably, an administration not known for nuance has played unusually coy. The president - who, to be fair, had a whopper of a distraction on the day of the House vote - posted a single tweet about the CHOICE Act, 17 hours after the fact:

The official statement of administration policy expressed support for the package as a "necessary and important step" in a process that now moves to the Senate. And in a Saturday night appearance on Fox News, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, neglected to include it in a list of the administration's "wins" from the past week: