A group of big banks officially launched a new trade group Monday, aiming to extend the industry’s influence over government supervision and regulation of the financial sector.
The group, named the Banking Policy Institute, is the product of the merger of two banking organizations, the Clearing House Association and the Financial Services Roundtable.
It represents megabanks such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo as well as some large regional banks and the U.S. arms of foreign megabanks, such as HSBC — 48 entities in all.
“We will demonstrate that America’s leading banks are extraordinarily resilient and that the right balance of policies and regulations must be maintained to help ensure they continue to play their important role in helping drive economic growth,” Greg Baer, the group’s CEO, said in a statement.
In an introductory note, Baer said that one of the group’s priorities will be to lobby on the post-crisis capital rules imposed on banks, requiring that they fund themselves less by borrowing and more with ownership stakes like stocks.
Big banks have been reworking their trade group representation in Washington. Eight of the biggest banks also recently revived the Financial Services Forum.
The banking industry scored a big win this year with the passage of a bipartisan bill to rewrite some parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. For the most part, though, that bill steered clear of major changes for the biggest banks.
Baer noted that influencing the implementation of that law will be one of the first big tasks for the new group.
The group was reportedly set to add a high-ranking Trump adviser, National Economic Council official Shahira Knight. Knight, though, is now going to stay with the administration, after Trump promoted her last week to be his director of legislative affairs.
