A Perilous Path Ahead for Dodd-Frank Banking Law: QuickTake Q&A

Senator Christopher Dodd and Representative Barney Frank are gone from the U.S. Congress, but the banking law they wrote is alive and kicking -- for now. With Donald Trump in the White House, critics of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act have their chance to rewrite, revise or gut a law they say goes well beyond addressing the causes of the financial crisis that prompted it. Trump has ordered a sweeping review of the array of rules arising from Dodd-Frank, which he blames for damaging the country’s "entrepreneurial spirit." The House of Representatives is taking up legislation, the Financial Choice Act, that would scrap much of the law. But Dodd-Frank is not such an easy target.

It never really left. Seven years after the law was signed by then-President Barack Obama, federal regulators are still not done writing the dense rules to carry it out. Republicans in Congress who don’t like the law have had minimal success in softening the rules. But they revived and repackaged their ideas during the 2016 election campaign, which saw Republicans prevail in the White House as well as both chambers of Congress.