In a letter to President-Elect Donald Trump, the American Bankers Association and its 52 affiliates are calling for a halt to all regulatory actions affecting banks and an extension of all effective dates for final regulations impacting financial institutions.
Such a pause is needed “to ensure that the incoming teams in each of these [financial regulatory] agencies has the time and opportunity to review years of rulemaking, guidance, and other policy actions that have the effect of constraining market participants,” the 50 state banking associations and ones representing the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, wrote, in their letter.
That review should include agency guidance, they said, adding that guidance often is treated as binding, even though it did not go through a notice and comment period process, as well as pending litigation, which may reflect the Biden Administration’s priorities.
The associations also recommended that the Treasury Department conduct a comprehensive review of agency rulemaking during the Biden Administration to assess both the cumulative impact of those rules as well as the specific impact on access to credit and capital markets.
“A new, commonsense approach to financial regulation is urgently needed, and that process can begin quickly by announcing an immediate regulatory pause and review,” the associations said.
They contended that for the past several years, “the federal banking agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the capital markets regulators have pursued an aggressive and misguided regulatory agenda, upending longstanding, tested banking practices with questionable and unnecessary policy actions that undermine our members’ ability to provide capital and credit to Main Street.”
The associations said that bankers have commented on proposed rules, but their concerns were ignored, as the agencies exceeded their legal authority. They added that has led the ABA and state associations to file an unprecedented seven lawsuits challenging statutory overreach and process failures.
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