President Trump on Friday is expected to sign a pair of executive orders that takes square aim at the “fiduciary duty” which was just finalized in June last year and reviews regulations from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law for potential changes.
Stephen T. Mnuchin, a hedge fund manager and now the President’s pick for Treasury, had also promised to “kill” parts of the Dodd-Frank law, including the Volcker rule that restricts banks from making speculative investments of the kind that led to the 2008-2009 global economic crisis.
Fallout
The rules in place are critical to ensure people are not being steered to ineffective investments that reap big commissions for investment advisers. A prolonged dispute with Democrats and supporters of the bill on Capital Hill is expected.
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Under the first expected executive order, Trump will direct the Labor Department to halt implementation of the “fiduciary duty” rule and completely re-review the project. The rule was set to take effect on April 10, but given Trump’s harsh criticism of financial rules, it would face long odds of being resurrected in anything resembling its current form — White House officials described the regulatory project as a “complete miss.”
The second order Trump is expected to sign will direct regulators to comprehensively review rules put in place under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, another signature Obama achievement. White House officials said the initiative is not an attempt to “undo” the Wall Street reform law, but rather intended to “fix” some “overarching issues.”
Sources: Wall Street Journal, The Hill
