Washington, D.C.  –  Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, discussed the current state of financial reform with Better Markets’ President and CEO Dennis Kelleher Tuesday during a webinar held on the 12th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’ collapse.

Sen. Brown also shared his thoughts on what the next administration must do to strengthen and stabilize the system during a Q&A session moderated by Mr. Kelleher.

“We are going to have a lot of work to do undoing the damage President Trump has done to our financial system,” said Sen. Brown. “But we must also think beyond just restoring Wall Street reform to where we were 10 years ago. We passed Dodd-Frank to prevent another crisis – but preventing a financial crisis should really be the bare minimum. We should aim higher than just trying to prevent economic catastrophe. We want the economy to actually work for workers and their families. Ultimately the goal has to be to reorient our economy from Wall Street wealth, to the Dignity of Work.”

In his opening remarks, Kelleher noted that many Americans were still feeling the ongoing aftereffects of the economic calamity ignited by Lehman Brothers’ collapse when the pandemic struck earlier this year. He noted that the Lehman collapse and the crash it caused must serve as reminders of the danger to Main Street when Wall Street banks are allowed to engage in high-risk and dangerous activities.

“The bottom line is that what happens on Wall Street and finance more generally doesn’t stay on Wall Street,” he said. “The actions of Wall Street dramatically impact Main Street families and businesses in catastrophic ways, and, if left unchecked or otherwise unregulated, can kill economic growth, vaporize savings, increase inequality and throw millions of Americans out of their homes and jobs.”

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Better Markets also released a new report “Protecting Main Street from President Trump’s Dangerous Deregulation” in conjunction with the webinar. This report identifies the top priorities for each of the six key financial regulatory agencies. It also has an appendix comprehensively listing many of the deregulatory rulemakings taken by each agency during the Trump Administration with links to Better Markets’ related comment letters.

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.