“More Dodd-Frank”

It is sickening to keep hearing about layers of Federal Regulations that keep showing up as a result of the Dodd-Frank bill. One thing for sure, each time new regulations show up, you and I are paying for it. Protection like this we don’t need.

Once a new administration is in place and there are new faces in the Senate and Congress, this should be put on the agenda to be repealed.

Fed Green-Lights Final Rule for Bankruptcy Plans

The Federal Reserve presented the banking industry with a rule Monday that will require financial institutions with more than $50 billion in holdings to draft and deliver bankruptcy resolution plans to regulators.

The final rule fulfills a stipulation under the Dodd-Frank Act, which compelled federal regulators to come up with a screening process to determine the size, scope, and needs of an insolvent bank.

Under the new rule, both bank holding companies and those nonbank financial institutions supervised by the Financial Stability Oversight Council will need to submit their bankruptcy resolution plans to both the Fed and FDIC.

The rule requires that banks address solvency and exit strategies for their assets and holdings in the instance of a bankruptcy, fueling rumors that the U.S. federal government will refrain from intervention in another bailout scenario.

Some plans are required by the regulators by July 2012 and others by July 2013, according to the announcement, with companies with $250 billion in assets expected to deliver their plans by the former.

Financial institutions with fewer than $250 billion in assets but more than $100 billion will need to hand over their plans by the latter time.

As new Dodd-Frank rules tighten across the industry, company and trade group executives show few signs of relenting in their campaign to undo the legal framework.

Frank Keating, former Oklahoma governor and president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, criticized Dodd-Frank in an August column for The Wall Street Journal, calling it a “mountainous regulatory burden” and “a significant challenge for a bank of any size.

“More regulation doesn’t necessarily make consumers safer, banks stronger, or the economy healthier,” he added.

“Dodd-Frank is looming over this entire industry, and it could be the next great cull,” Brian O’Shaughnessy, president of Calabasas-based Athas Capital, tells MReport. “If they pass the regulation, it will wipe out another huge chunk of people. More power for the government, less for the free market.”

Other moves by the federal government to ensure that future administration officials and lawmakers refrain from intervening in a bailout scenario drove Moody’s Investors Service to slash credit ratings for Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo in September.