The president says that in the current regulatory environment, the regulators are the ones running the banks
The controversial Dodd-Frank Act is going to get a “major haircut,” President Donald Trump promised business leaders Tuesday.
During a meeting with the CEOs of some of the nation’s biggest companies, Trump said that some current regulations were making it impossible for businesses to function. He told the assembled executives that he planned on “destroying” not only Obama-era regulations, but regulations enacted as far back as the beginning of the Clinton administration.
“We are absolutely destroying these horrible regulations that have been placed over your heads, not over the last eight years – over the last 20 and 25 years,” Trump said.
Trump particularly singled out the Dodd-Frank act, saying it was stifling lending.
“Dodd-Frank is an example of what we’re working on and we’re working on it right now,” he said. “…We’re going to be doing things that are going to be very good for the banking industry so the banks can lend money to people that need it.”
Trump said that under Dodd-Frank, the CEOs of financial institutions weren’t really the ones in charge of their companies.
“Really, the head people, they’re petrified of the regulators. They’re petrified,” Trump said. “They can’t move. The regulators are running the banks.”
However, Trump said he wasn’t pushing for a total repeal of the law. Rather, he said, he wanted to give it a “haircut.”
“So we’re going to do a very major haircut on Dodd-Frank,” he said. “We want strong restrictions. We want strong regulation, but not regulation that makes it impossible for banks to lend to people that are going to create jobs.”The president may be in for a tough sled in gutting the regulation, however; congressional Democrats have already vowed to fight any attempt to weaken the act.
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