Dismantling Megabanks
With Democrats in charge of the House, there will likely be renewed calls for breaking up JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and other Wall Street giants. Progressives have called for reinstating some version of the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept commercial and investment banking separate for almost seven decades until its 1999 repeal. Waters has proposed legislation that would give regulators new powers to dismantle lenders that have a record of abusing consumers.
While the chances that any bill would get through the Senate are slim, rhetoric attacking big banks and hearings on the topic could rattle Wall Street. At a campaign event earlier this year, Waters told an audience that when she takes the gavel it will be "payback time" for banks and insurance companies.
Scrutinizing Regulators
Waters has promised tough scrutiny of officials appointed by Trump. High on that list is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Mick Mulvaney. Other regulators Waters has criticized include Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting and Randal Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman of supervision. She’s likely to demand that they and others testify frequently before the financial services panel to answer questions about their efforts to soften post-crisis rules.
This article provided by Bloomberg News.