As many as 13 deregulatory actions by federal financial institution regulators – including five by the credit union regulator – have been adopted or are in progress during the administration of President Donald Trump, according to a regulatory “tracker” updated by a Washington think tank Tuesday.
But only three, the tracker states, are “noteworthy.”
The Brookings Institution listed the financial institution deregulation realized in the first 22 months of the Trump administration as part of an overall report on the administration’s efforts to achieve its “regulatory ambitions.”
According to the report, the administration has (to date) pursued at least 143 significant deregulatory actions across the federal government (including at the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA; Department of Health and Human Services, HHS; Department of Labor, DOL; and more). A number of these, the think tank notes, have been challenged in court – where the administration has won a single case and either lost or abandoned its position in 18 other cases (a 5% win rate, according to Brookings).
The tracker identifies 13 deregulatory actions pursued by federal financial institution regulators – the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP), Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
According to the tracker, NCUA has taken the most deregulatory actions (five) to date: Loans and Lines of Credit to Members (in rulemaking process); Risk-Based Capital (RBC) Rule (delayed to 2020 from 2019); Alternative Capital Rule (in rulemaking); Corporate Credit Unions Rule (in effect); and Emergency Mergers-Chartering and Field of Membership Rule (in effect).
The BCFP comes in second, according to the tracker, with four deregulatory actions: Dealer Markups Guidance (repealed); Prepaid Accounts Rule (delayed); Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data Collection Rule (partially effective); and the Arbitration Rule (repealed after being nullified by Congress under the Congressional Review Act).
The Federal Reserve and FDIC each have three deregulatory actions, the tracker shows, taken in conjunction with other. Those are: Regulatory Capital Rule for Small Banks: Transitions (in effect); Regulatory Capital Rule for Small Banks: Simplifications (in rulemaking); and Commercial Real Estate Appraisal Rule (in effect).
OCC came in with one action: Its advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on reforming rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which remains out for comment until Nov. 19.
Of these 13 deregulatory actions, the tracker marks only three as “noteworthy”: The BCFP actions on dealer markups guidance, Congress’ nullification of the arbitration rule, and the OCC’s ANPR on CRA implementing rules.