Barr on NPR: Dodd-Frank rollback would weaken oversight, cripple consumer protection

May 8, 2017

Michael S. Barr, a key architect of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, isn't mincing words when it comes to outlining the stakes of dismantling the historic Wall Street reform and consumer protection legislation. Last month, he testified before Congress on the Dodd-Frank—along with its proposed replacement, the Financial CHOICE Act—and, on Monday, he told NPR's Lester Graham that a Dodd-Frank repeal would "cripple" consumer protection efforts.

The Republican bill, which he says would roll back many of the measures put in place in Dodd-Frank, "would make it impossible to regulate firms like Lehman Brothers and AIG, that weren't organized as banks, but caused many of the problems in the financial crisis." It would also eliminate the Orderly Liquidation Authority, a body that he calls an "essential tool" to prevent future bailouts by tackling the problem of institutions seen as "too big to fail." "The Financial CHOICE Act would repeal it," he says. "It would get rid of it entirely."

Listen to the full segment on Stateside.