Republican-led, Trump era rollback of Dodd-Frank removed rules designed to prevent the collapse of banks like SVB
The Silicon Valley Bank failure is another result of a broken system that lets powerful corporations and big donors rig the system.
“Since the Citizens United decision, Wall Street has supercharged its manipulation of our broken system to buy power and policy outcomes,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “That includes pushing through a Republican-led repeal of regulations put in place to prevent bank failures like SVB. Now, it’s regular people who are forced to face the uncertainty SVB’s collapse may have on our economy.”
During the 2018 cycle, Wall Street spent nearly $500 million on campaign contributions and lobbying, including passing a rollback of Dodd-Frank regulations to loosen scrutiny over banks with less than $250 billion in assets – banks like Silicon Valley Bank. SVB CEO Greg Becker had been pushing for the rollback of these protections since 2015.
A CBO analysis said the bill would “increase the likelihood that a large financial firm with assets of between $100 billion and $250 billion would fail.”
Despite the warnings, Republicans pushed the legislation through Congress at Wall Street’s behest and was ultimately signed into law by President Trump.
Wall Street Contributions to Congress (2018 Cycle): $159.04 million
Wall Street Lobbying (2018 Cycle): $332.32 million
###