Republican Donald J. Trump pulled out the election yesterday, becoming the nation’s 45th president, but the fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, including Director Richard Cordray and the Dodd-Frank Act, remain unknown — for now.
President Trump has said he wants to repeal much of Dodd-Frank, but has provided scant details of the regulatory regime he favors, and has not proposed a plan for regulating the financial sector yet.
However, Trump has claimed he plans to place a “temporary pause on new regulations” and review previous regulations “to see which need to be scrapped,” according to his campaign website. Trump said he will require federal agencies to prepare a list of regulations they impose and rank them from most to least critical, to which the least critical regulations will “receive priority consideration for repeal,” according to the site.
“With a new president-elect and changes to the House and Senate, government and industry leaders have a chance to find workable solutions on issues most important to consumers,” Consumer Bankers Association’s President and Chief Executive Richard Hunt, said in a statement. “This is especially true for banking issues, as a strong banking sector is critical to a strong economy.
Another area for the financial industry to “watch” is the 2018 expiration of Cordray’s term, Ryan Donovan, chief advocacy officer of Credit Union National Association (CUNA), told Auto Finance News in September.
“[Trump] has the opportunity to nominate someone who will be the second director to the CFPB,” Donovan said. “For credit unions, this is really significant position because so much of the focus on the CFPB has been to right the wrongs of the last financial crisis.”
CBA encourages President-elect Trump to appoint experts willing to collaborate with industry counterparts from the retail banking industry, according to CBA’s statement. “When we work together and consider all sides of the argument, we put people over partisan politics and stand a chance at strengthening the economy for all American consumers.”
With the election results in, CBA will remain focused on working with members of federal agencies and congressional committees key to the financial services industry on top priorities, which include a five-person, bipartisan commission at the CFPB; common sense policies to help banks innovate in the 21st century; and improving the regulatory environment so banks may continue to meet consumer needs, according to the statement.