Mnuchin: Dodd-Frank rollback to address small, regional bank concerns

WASHINGTON — The administration wants to address the concerns of banks of all sizes when it releases its plan to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday.

“We’re going to have an all-encompassing plan to make sure … that banks can lend,” said Mnuchin, speaking at an event organized by Axios. “Making sure that we have community banks — this isn’t just about having global banks, that we have regional banks — and that our companies can get proper access to capital and that the financial markets can have appropriate liquidity.”

Mnuchin said that the Treasury Department this week had convened a group of 150 representatives from the banking industry to discuss the administration’s deregulatory efforts.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin
Steven Mnuchin, U.S. treasury secretary, arrives in Downing Street for a meeting with Philip Hammond, U.K. chancellor of the exchequer, in London, U.K., on Thursday, March 16, 2017. Hammond scrapped a plan to increase tax on the self-employed, after a storm of criticism from legislators in his own ruling Conservative Party. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

“We’ve reached out to all the regulatory agencies,” he added. “We’ve reached out to banks, nonbanks, processors. ... We are seeking input from just about anybody that you can imagine is being impacted by all these regulatory issues.”

Mnuchin added that the administration’s strategy would include regulatory moves in addition to legislation.

“We’re going to tell the president here our recommendations,” he said. “Certain things can be done by the regulators, by changing regulations, certain things can be done … through executive orders and certain things will require legislation.”

In a conversation that touched on topics including taxes, trade and his favorite movie (“no question, 'Avatar' ”), Mnuchin also suggested that he planned to take measures to strengthen the financial industry's cybersecurity.

“I worry about cybersecurity in that we need to have a safe and sound financial infrastructure,” he said. “I've probably had 10 meetings on this so far.”

Mnuchin added that he planned to steer the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which he chairs, to coordinate cybersecurity efforts between the different financial agencies.

“The safety of the financial system is critical,” he said.

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