Trump Overhauling Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations

On Friday, President Donald Trump is reported to sign two directives aimed at the finance industry. One directive would review the financial regulations created by Dodd-Frank, a 2010 law which created safeguards to monitor and regulate financial institutions, and the other would stop the Obama Fiduciary Rule that requires financial advisers to work in their clients’ best interests.

In justifying the moves, President Trump has flatly said, “Dodd-Frank is a disaster,” and other administration officials have stated that “some of the rules may have even been unconstitutional, creating new agencies that don’t actually protect consumers” (per NPR).

One such agency might well be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin has said should come under the budgetary purview of Congress. Additionally, administration officials such as Sean Spicer have skirted questions about whether or not CFPB head Richard Cordray would be fired.

There’s no timetable for how long the review of Dodd-Frank provisions would last, but the halt of Obama’s Fiduciary Rule would be almost immediate. Scheduled for an April start, the rule would (according to the Obama administration) protect retirees from high-risk and high-cost investments that harm consumers. Even so, companies such as AIG and Principal Financial Group have told Bloomberg that they intend to act as though it is in place.