Lehman 10 Years Later: The Dodd-Frank Rollback

In response to the financial crisis of 2007–08, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018 has repealed or altered many Dodd-Frank’s reforms. This Article analyzes the EGRRCPA’s deregulation of large banks, community banks, mortgage lending standards, and consumer protection in the industry. While Dodd-Frank may have taken only small steps to address the causes of the financial crisis, the EGRRCPA completely ignores those risk factors.

Congress and the Administration have justified the counter-reforms on the ground that they have hampered economic growth, but economic growth since 2010 has in fact been very strong. The EGRRCPA is better explained as part of a larger deregulatory agenda that aims to make the financial sector, and industry generally, less and less accountable to customers and to society at large.