The Filing Cabinet

The new Republican majority in Congress launched its first strike against the Dodd-Frank Act last Wednesday, passing a bill that offers banks a semi-reprieve from the Volcker Rule and exempts small companies from filing financial statements tagged in XBRL. The legislation now moves to a Senate vote and is likely to incur a veto by President Barack Obama. Details inside.

The House of Representative’s Committee on Financial Services is moving forward with the latest round of legislative efforts to amend the Dodd-Frank Act, impose new requirements on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and offer regulatory relief to smaller banks and lenders. The first step was a day-long markup of newly filed bills. More inside. 

The House of Representatives, with a 401-2 vote, has approved legislation that requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to comply with Federal Advisory Committee Act transparency requirements. The Federal Reserve, CIA, and CFPB are among the agencies not covered by the law. More inside.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has once again teamed up with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Angus King (I-Maine) to file legislation to restore and modernize the Glass-Steagall Act, separating traditional banks that hold federally insured savings accounts from financial institutions that offer higher-risk services. Details inside.

Newly proposed legislation, the  Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act addresses the so-called “revolving door” that results when regulators draw talent from the private sector and those officials and staffers ultimately return to regulated entities after leaving an agency. To address perceived conflicts of interest, the bill would require senior financial service regulators to recuse themselves from actions that benefit employers or clients they worked for two years prior to federal service.

Security experts have long pressured companies to bring cyber-security expertise onto their boards. U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation known as the Cyber-security Disclosure Act of 2015 that could apply even more pressure. If passed, publicly traded companies would be required to disclose to the SEC whether any member of the company’s board of directors is a cyber-security expert.

Federal legislation that seeks to eliminate outdated and duplicative regulations was passed in the House of Representatives last week. The Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, which awaits a Senate vote, would establish a bipartisan commission to review existing federal regulations and identify those that should be repealed in order to reduce unnecessary business burdens.

A legislative package, recently passed by the House of Representatives, is drawing fire from Democrats and the White House. The bills, bundled as the Capital Markets Improvement Act of 2016, include changes to current SEC rules pertaining to company-issued employee stock, broker-dealer research reports, M&A brokers, and the use of the XBRL interactive data format. It also calls for the SEC to conduct a retrospective review of its rulemaking.

On the same day the SEC announced it had completed the remaining workload on JOBS Act mandates, conservative think tank the CATO Institute, in an unrelated effort, offered its thoughts on how the legislation is meeting capital formation goals and ways it could be improved. Joe Mont reports.

With the arrival of summer, battles over the U.S. regulatory regime are heating up. Earlier his month, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) unveiled a plan “to replace the Dodd-Frank Act.” It is now supplemented by a slate of “economic growth bills” approved by the Financial Services Committee and a Republican platform announced by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

A coalition of top Senate Democrats has asked the SEC “to investigate potential fraud and illegal conduct” that may have contributed to Puerto Rico’s ongoing debt crisis. The group also called on SEC Chair Mary Jo White to “be a cop on the beat of Wall Street.” Joe Mont reports.

The House of Representatives has approved Rep. Bill Huizenga’s (R-Mich.) amendments to a financial services appropriations bill that would defund enforcement of the SEC’s controversial pay ratio and conflict minerals rules, both requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act. Joe Mont provides a closer look.

Wells Fargo executives will testify before Congress this week amid revelations that employees opened unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts in their pursuit of sales targets and bonuses. Joe Mont reports.

During an interview with CNBC, Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, selected, respectively, as Treasury and Commerce secretaries, the two reiterated plans to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act.

Add more ammo to the pile for republicans embracing deregulation during the Trump Administration. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is out with a comprehensive list of rule-paring recommendations. Joe Mont has more.

As they stockpile ammunition in their efforts to remove CFPB Director Richard Cordray, House Republicans are claiming that recent auto lending rules by the Bureau are illegal. Joe Mont has more.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) slammed outgoing SEC Chair Mary Jo White over politically created concerns she expressed in her final speech. Joe Mont has more.

Democrats and Republicans alike are pushing legislation that could greatly affect regulators and regulations. Among the efforts is a Republican-led effort to kill the SEC’s extractive payments rule, writes Joe Mont.

President Trump is expected to finalize Congressional action that kills the Obama Administration’s so-called “blacklisting rule” for federal contractors, a requirement that they disclose labor law, civil rights, and wage violations.

President Donald J. Trump’s pick to serve as SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on March 23, a prelude to confirmation by the full Senate.

Congressional Democrats are supporting legislation that would give victims of fraud by Wells Fargo release from forced arbitration clauses that otherwise prevent them from suing the bank.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that seeks greater transparency and objectivity to the process of regulatory rulemaking.

With Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin now in place, the Trump Administration is looking to add another Goldman Sachs executive to a top post at the Treasury Department. James Donovan, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, has been nominated as deputy secretary.

President Donald J. Trump has unveiled a “comprehensive plan for reorganizing the executive branch,” an overhaul of federal agencies intended to cut federal spending and reduce redundancies.

The Department of the Interior has halted its participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global anti-corruption effort for the oil, gas, and mining industries.