St Casimirs Mortgage Minute

ABA Analyzes What Midterm Elections Mean for Bankers


ABA’s government relations team has prepared an analysis of how the Republican victory in Tuesday’s election will affect the banking industry. The analysis, which is available on aba.com, reviews the likely impact on such key issues as Dodd-Frank regulatory fixes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, overall regulatory burden, data security, GSE reform and tax reform.

There is cautious optimism about the potential for tweaks to Dodd-Frank and more oversight of financial regulators, the analysis indicates. "Congress can play a critical role ... in terms of both legislation and aggressive oversight of regulatory actions," the analysis found. "The U.S. Senate under current Democratic leadership has been reluctant to take on that role. We anticipate that the incoming leadership will be more active in their oversight responsibilities and will originate and consider some regulatory relief bills in the 114th Congress. Read the analysis.

The election represented the fruit of ABA's electoral engagement efforts. Through BankPac, bankers supported more than 480 candidates with the $3.2 million -- 90 percent of that raised through state bankers associations -- they raised for the 2014 election cycle. Meanwhile, ABA's 501(c)(4), the Financial Education and Advocacy Initiative, was successful in all five of the races where it supported get-out-the-vote efforts: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa and Kentucky.

--ABA Daily Newsbytes