Banking regulation rollback underway
WASHINGTON United States President Donald Trump's promised rollback of banking regulation is well underway, with vacancies at the top of key agencies and new legislation in the works.
Mr Trump will have an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the agencies in charge of regulation as he fills key positions.
At the Federal Reserve, he will have the opportunity to fill at least three of the seven seats on the central bank's board.
Mr Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who had long been in the banking industry's crosshairs, announced last week he would step down by the end of the month, several months early.
The Senate also last week confirmed Mr Joseph Otting, an associate of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, as the new head of the Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a principal banking regulator.
Likewise, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now led by a Trump appointee.
"They'll get away with everything they can," said economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, about the regulatory rollback. - AFP
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