Trump signs bill easing restraints on banks

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed into law a measure that loosens key restraints for banks imposed after the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession. Savoring the legislative triumph, he called it “the next step in America’s unprecedented economic comeback.”

The Republican-crafted bill passed Congress on Tuesday with the help of some Democratic votes and allowed Trump to fulfill his campaign pledge of dismantling the landmark Dodd-Frank law. The 2010 law was enacted by President Barack Obama and

Democrats in Congress in response to the crisis that brought millions of lost jobs and foreclosed homes, and a taxpayer bailout of hundreds of billions for banks on Wall Street and beyond.

Trump held a signing ceremony at the White House not long after announcing the cancellation of his planned June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The new law raises the threshold at which banks are deemed so big and plugged into the financial grid that if one were to fail it would cause major havoc. Such banks are subject to stricter capital and planning requirements.

Trump is gaining a major

building block in his drive for business-friendly policy changes and easing of regulations

that he says have stifled lending, economic growth and job creation.