Senate set to revamp bank rules

Bill leaves much of Dodd-Frank intact; Wall Street loses

ELIZABETH DEXHEIMER

The U. S. Senate is expected to approve a sweeping revamp of financial rules this week.

Of all the surprises that entails — about a dozen Democrats signing on, Republicans leaving a lot of the much-maligned Dodd-Frank legislation intact — the biggest is the lack of goodies for Wall Street.

Some big banks are lobbying right up to the vote in hopes of salvaging a victory because the legislation probably marks the last time lawmakers with full plates will take up financial regulations before November’s crucial midterm elections. After that, it’s anyone’s guess when the industry will get another chance at relief.

“Is there something more that is going to happen this Congress? You can make the case that it is hard to see,” said Ken Bentsen, chief executive officer of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a Wall Street lobbying group.

The bill has a good chance of becoming law. The U.S. House and President Donald Trump are eager to pass legislation altering the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, and White House staff have been making calls to lawmakers to build support.

The move to alter some key aspects of Dodd-Frank has overwhelming Republican support and enough Democratic backing that it’s expected to gain the 60 votes necessary to clear the Senate. Several Democratic lawmakers facing tough re-election races this year have broken ranks with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass.

Sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo of Idaho, the Republican’s bill seems intent on not helping the giant financial institutions that fueled populist anger in the lead-up to the 2008 crisis, and other firms that have continued to trigger criticism.

Megabanks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank

● of America Corp. could walk away almost empty-handed. And Equifax Inc. — the credit company that left millions of consumers vulnerable to identify theft after being hacked last year — might even be punished with tougher rules.

A core component of Crapo’s bill is giving small banks relief from a key provision in Dodd-Frank that they’ve been fighting to change for years. It would raise to $250 billion from $50 billion the asset threshold for banks to be subject to stricter Federal Reserve oversight, freeing firms like American Express Co. and SunTrust Banks Inc. from higher compliance costs associated with being considered “systemically important financial institutions,” or SIFIs.

Among the bill’s biggest losers are large regional firms like Capital One Financial Corp. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc., whose SIFI designations would remain.

Wall Street has been more successful in getting changes it wants from regulators. With agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

AP/RICHARD DREW Specialists Robert Tuccillo (left) and Matthew Greiner work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. Major U.S. stock indexes closed sharply higher in a broad advance as concerns appeared to fade of the prospect of more protectionist...