FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or njacobs@bettermarkets.com
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement on the quarterly results announced by JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America, merely days before the 7th Anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act this Friday, July 21:
“The nation’s biggest too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks have just reported their latest quarterly results showing lending to the real economy is up and revenue from trading is down. That is the direct result of one of the key goals of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act and those results prove that financial reform is working to protect American families.
“While preventing financial crashes and bailouts gets all the attention, the Dodd-Frank law was also intended to refocus the activities of the biggest banks back to supporting the real economy by lending more, thereby financing economic growth and jobs. In the years of deregulation leading up to the 2008 crash, lending to the real economy too often was an afterthought to the much more lucrative trading activities of Wall Street’s biggest banks. More often than not, that trading was socially useless short-term gambling driven by a bonus culture that enriched a few thousand bankers at the expense of destabilizing the banks, the financial system and ultimately our economy.
“That’s why rebalancing Wall Street’s biggest banks’ activities to get them back into the business of lending to real businesses and people, rather than making big financial bets mostly among themselves, was a key objective of the Dodd-Frank law. That also why the Volcker Rule prohibiting proprietary trading, capital and liquidity requirements, and derivatives reforms remain critically important. The Dodd-Frank law has eliminated or reduced Wall Street’s biggest banks’ most dangerous, high-risk activities while requiring them to internalize operating costs that they had shifted to the American people. That has resulted in their renewed focus on lending to the real economy, which is now mostly driving their revenue and profits.
“That’s all good news for Main Street, continued economic growth and ultimately more broadly shared prosperity. However, that is also what is directly threatened by the mindless deregulatory zeal of too many in Washington who are baselessly attacking Dodd-Frank for almost every ill in America. If economic growth and jobs are your objective, strengthening and enforcing the Dodd-Frank law is one of the best ways to accomplish those goals.”
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies – including many in finance – to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.com.
