“Banking specialists who favor more stringent Wall Street rules expressed some concerns… ‘A derivatives exposure that looks small in normal times can become enormous in times of financial stress,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. “This rule may not contain adequate protections against that kind of risk.’”
“Cutting these big banks down to size would have a lot of positive impacts. It would lessen the political power of the financial industry, it would put government in a position [to] let a bank fail and let that bank be restructured to be a healthy entity and experience the consequence of its actions… There’s enormous amounts of money at stake and very complex and technical rules. The banks can fund a constant lobbying presence to hammer on all of these rules when often the general public might not even know these battles are going on, so it is a tough fight but I believe the public is on the side of stronger action.” — Marcus Stanley, Policy Director, Americans for Financial Reform
“Right now any bank over $50 billion dollars in size automatically becomes a SIFI [systematically important financial institution]. Richard Shelby, the [Senate Banking Committee] chair… originally called for raising that threshold to $500 billion. But Republicans also want to weaken the ability to designate non-banks as SIFIs. As Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform told me, ‘The FSOC designation procedure is already lengthy and time-consuming and includes numerous procedural protections for firms under consideration. These bills are designed to make it essentially unworkable.'”
AFR’s Marcus Stanley: “Why are we thinking that the [financial] industry and the industry lobby knows better than the regulators? To say that Dodd-Frank is some straitjacket ignores the [truth] that regulators have lots of chances to adjust [its implementation].”
“Consumer groups are deeply skeptical of the debate, arguing it is just a talking point for the regional and big banks to weaken Dodd-Frank. ‘It’s basically an attempt to put up a sort of fog of complicated technical terms around industry’s desire to reverse pretty basic financial reforms,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director for public advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform. There’s no academic consensus on any single best way to measure [liquidity] … so you can raise it as this boogeyman in a way that is not really particularly connected to the substantive issues.'”
“Bonds seem to trade in smaller transaction sizes than they once did… That is perceived as a sign of illiquidity… A better indication, according to a presentation by Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, would be total trading in the corporate market, which in fact has slightly increased since the financial crisis.”
“The lead agency for investor protection isn’t a natural target for the party’s liberal wing… But half of all Americans own some form of stock… More important, the securities industry has insinuated itself into more of American life. Individuals and small business increasingly get loans through the capital markets; our 401(k) plans are based on publicly traded investments… ‘We marketized our retirement system, we marketized our banking system, and the SEC is the main securities regulator,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director for the coalition Americans for Financial Reform.”
“‘The administration can say whatever it wants about its interpretation of these trade agreements,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, a Wall Street watchdog group. ‘The problem is, under the terms of these agreements, they are not going to be interpreting them. Private tribunals of trade lawyers are going to be interpreting them, and there are going to be plenty of openings, as this shows, to make claims that critical prudential regulations conflict with trade agreements. And eventually one of those is going to win out.'”
“The legislation would make it easier for Wall Street to escape tough rules designed to make trading more competitive and transparent, Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, said in an interview. ‘It could undo various parts of the Dodd-Frank Act by permitting American banks to transact in locations where swaps are not as well-regulated,’ Stanley said.”
Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform… questioned the SEC’s proposal [for a derivatives exemption]. “We have lots of doubts and questions here about the direction they’re going,” Stanley said. “If they’re going to permit foreign subsidiaries of U.S. banks to sidestep the clearing and exchange trading requirements even for transactions conducted in the U.S., that’s a problem.”