On May 24, 2018, U.S. President Trump signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act; the first major financial services reform bill since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. While the act is not a wholesale repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act, and does not offer the broad regulatory relief that was proposed under the Financial Choice Act of 2017, it does modify or eliminate certain requirements on community and regional banks and nonbank financial institutions in particular that have been perceived to be especially burdensome. The key aspect of the act may be the increase, from $50 billion to $250 billion, of the threshold at which a large banking organization automatically becomes subject to enhanced prudential standards. The act contains several other important provisions, including: exempting banks with less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets from the Volcker Rule and easing certain fund naming restrictions under the Volcker Rule; exempting certain deposits held by custodial banks from the calculation of the supplementary leverage ratio; reducing reporting and supervision requirements applicable to community banks; and easing certain securities law requirements. Many of the provisions in the act are self-executing, although a number of other provisions require positive action to be taken by U.S. federal financial regulatory agencies.
For a more detailed discussion of the act, you may wish to refer to our client publication: "First Major Dodd- Frank Reform Bill Signed into Law" available at: https://www.shearman.com/perspectives/2018/05/first-major-dodd-frank-reform-bill.
The full text of the act is available at: https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/s2155/BILLS-115s2155enr.pdf.
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