Wall Street & Technology is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Compliance

11:07 AM
Phil Albinus
Phil Albinus
Commentary
Connect Directly
Twitter
RSS
E-Mail
50%
50%

Romney To Dodd-Frank: Get Ready For Repeal

The GOP candidate promised to gut the sweeping regulatory reform that President Obama signed into law. That sound you hear are the tears of joy from Wall Street.

In a surprisingly watchable presidential debate, a feisty Mitt Romney slammed at the regulations passed by President Barack Obama, especially the Dodd-Frank Act. Romney vowed that while regulation was necessary, the new rules had become excessive and were stifling any meaningful economic recovery. As Reuters reports on Wednesday's debate:

"Regulation is essential. You can't have a free market work without regulation," said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor.

"At the same time, regulation can become excessive, it can become out of date. And what's happened with some of the legislation that's been passed under President Obama's term is you've seen some of the regulation become excessive and it has hurt the economy."

[snip]

"We are not going to get rid of all regulation," he said. "You have to have regulation and there are some parts of Dodd-Frank that make all the sense in the world. You have to have transparency, leverage limits."

Attacks on Dodd-Frank had been a popular applause line during the seemingly endless GOP debates late last year and earlier this year and the GOP candidate has pledged to stop the laws that take aim at 'too big to fail' institutions. Even though Romney is the wealthiest person to run for the White House in the modern age, and he is often seen by the public as being more concerned about the 1 Percent rather than the middle class, he has pledged to repeal the sweeping 2010 law.

President Obama, who has been criticized for his muted, almost diffident, performance last night, defended regulatory reform. As Reuters reports:

"The reason we have been in such an enormous economic crisis was prompted by reckless behavior across the board," Obama said.

"The question is does anybody out there think that the big problem we had is that there was too much oversight and regulation of Wall Street? Because if you do, then Governor Romney is your candidate. But that's not what I believe."

Romney does have a point that the bailouts did not prevent the so-called 'too big to fail' institutions from growing. In fact, the very firms became even larger after the pell-mell mergers that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. But Romney is hoping that voters believe that this happened under President Obama's watch and not his predecessor, George W. Bush, a Republican.

It wasn't the former Massachusetts governor's only dalliance with the truth last night but this fib might be the most effective come Election Day.

Phil Albinus is the former editor-in-chief of Advanced Trading. He has nearly two decades of journalism experience and has been covering financial technology and regulation for nine years. Before joining Advanced Trading, he served as editor of Waters, a monthly trade journal ... View Full Bio
More Commentary
A Wild Ride Comes to an End
Covering the financial services technology space for the past 15 years has been a thrilling ride with many ups as downs.
The End of an Era: Farewell to an Icon
After more than two decades of writing for Wall Street & Technology, I am leaving the media brand. It's time to reflect on our mutual history and the road ahead.
Beyond Bitcoin: Why Counterparty Has Won Support From Overstock's Chairman
The combined excitement over the currency and the Blockchain has kept the market capitalization above $4 billion for more than a year. This has attracted both imitators and innovators.
Asset Managers Set Sights on Defragmenting Back-Office Data
Defragmenting back-office data and technology will be a top focus for asset managers in 2015.
4 Mobile Security Predictions for 2015
As we look ahead, mobility is the perfect breeding ground for attacks in 2015.
Register for Wall Street & Technology Newsletters
Video
Stressed Out by Compliance, Reputational Damage & Fines?
Stressed Out by Compliance, Reputational Damage & Fines?
Financial services executives are living in a "regulatory pressure cooker." Here's how executives are preparing for the new compliance requirements.