Merkley Pushes Back on Regulators’ Weakening of Volcker Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley, a co-author of the Volcker Rule, released the following statement after Trump-appointed regulators announced that they would rewrite implementation of the rule to weaken its restrictions:

“Let’s call it like it is: This is a massive giveaway to the biggest banks. Our small, local community banks don’t want to run hedge funds with their customers’ money. This is a brazen attempt by big bank CEOs and their Trump-appointed allies to reopen the Wall Street casino, less than 10 years after the passage of financial reform.

“These are not small, technical changes. These are massive rewrites to make it easier for Wall Street banks to engage in the same types of risky bets that brought down our economy in 2008. This is a backdoor attempt to roll back financial reform laws without going through Congress, and every American who wants to hold Wall Street accountable and avoid a repeat financial crisis should be deeply alarmed.”

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