Last week, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, POLITICO and others, the House voted for a sweeping rewrite of the Dodd-Frank Act. According to Politico, “The legislation, approved without a single Democratic vote, represents the GOP’s opening salvo in the debate over easing the rules on the financial system, a move sparked by the election of President Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress.”

For our prior coverage of the CHOICE Act, see these posts here and here.

Below are three takeaways on the CHOICE Act passage:

  • There is a strong GOP push to significantly revise the rules governing Wall Street. In addition to the CHOICE Act, on Monday, June 12, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its much anticipated financial regulatory reform report. This report stems from the President’s February 2017 Executive Order on “Core Principles for Regulating the U.S. Financial System” where the Secretary of the Treasury was to “identify any laws, treaties, regulations, guidance, reporting and record keeping requirements, and other Government policies that inhibit Federal regulation of the U.S. financial system in a manner consistent with the core principles.”

Continue Reading 3 Takeaways from the Recent House Passage of the Financial CHOICE Act

In the past couple days, much has been written about the contents of a leaked memo from Jeb Hersarling, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, to the Committee’s Leadership Team. The memo, of which we have obtained a copy and posted here, outlines proposed changes from the original Financial CHOICE Act, introduced last year. The original version of the Financial CHOICE Act is located here.

According to sources, the current word (for whatever current “word” is worth nowadays) is that the revised draft of the Financial CHOICE Act may come out end of month with a pretty quick mark-up in March. Additionally, some think that if the repeal of the Durbin Amendment (which limits the fees that may be charged to retailers for debit card processing) remains in the bill, then that provision may hold it all up given that opposition doesn’t necessarily divide along party lines, but rather along who has a large bank or retail headquarter in their district.Continue Reading What to Expect in the New Financial CHOICE Act (2.0)