House passes sweeping legislation to roll back banking rules
June 9, 2017 | by Renae Merle | The Washington Post
The Republican-led House on Thursday voted to free Wall Street from many of the constraints put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, the opening salvo in what is likely to be a protracted battle over deregulation of the powerful banking industry.
Big banks, from Goldman Sachs to Bank of America, would face less scrutiny, and other large financial institutions, such as insurance giant MetLife, could escape tougher rules all together under the legislation approved largely along party lines.
The Trump administration backed the bill, the Financial Choice Act, as part of a multipronged effort to ease banking regulations to spur economic growth. The legislation probably will face stiff resistance in the Senate, but it provides a road map of sorts for the policies the president plans to put in place as he appoints new regulators. Trump, who has complained about tight lending practices, has ordered three reviews of banking rules, the first of which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is set to deliver as soon as next week.
