Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would repeal unused Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discretionary authorities granted by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that was enacted in 2010.
Bank regulations doubled since 2010 and compliance costs grew $50 billion annually, according to a 2019 Baker Institute at Rice University study. Small banks were disproportionately impacted, according to the study, with increases in auditing, consulting, data processing, and legal fees.
U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced the Business Opportunity Protection Act. U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Unused discretionary authorities at the SEC create a regulatory overhang — businesses are forced to plan for rules and compliance burdens that could appear overnight,” Ricketts said. “It’s time to restore balance, accountability, and certainty to the SEC and take unused discretionary authorities off the books for good.”
“Dodd-Frank slowed our recovery from the 2008 recession and will go down as one of the biggest power grabs by federal regulators in history,” Barr, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions chairman, said. “More than 15 years later, I’m teaming up with Sen. Ricketts to prevent the SEC from imposing any more regulations under Dodd-Frank that haven’t already been implemented.”