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30 BARNEY FRANK RESPONDS TO DODD-FRANK EXECUTIVE ORDER President Donald Trump's executive order demanding an official review of the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is his first real step toward fulfilling a promise he made in his campaign to overhaul the banking rule. e executive order, which President Trump signed last month, will direct the Treasury secretary to consult members of different regulatory agencies and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and report back on potential changes. Former House Representative Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts spoke to DS News on February 3, saying Trump's latest executive order confirms his suspicions that Trump has no intention of maintaining strong regulatory controls over the financial industry. "He's not worried about a repeat of 2008," Frank said. "I think this is just confirmation that he believes we shouldn't regulate the financial industry. Instead, he's going to make people in business very happy." Frank first introduced the Act into the House of Representatives in 2009, which passed in the Senate with the help of co-author Sen. Chris Dodd D-Connecticut. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. Frank said the executive order itself is no real threat to Dodd-Frank itself, as it only orders the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare a report. "e executive order doesn't do anything. Literally it doesn't do anything," he said. "e reason is, he can't change the provisions of the law by executive order. ese are specific statutes, I think we were very careful about adopting them. He would like to get Congress substantively to weaken the bill legislatively." Frank expressed his skepticism that repeal of financial reform will succeed in Congress. "Financial reform is very popular," Frank said. "When the Republicans were in power under President Obama, they kept voting to repeal the health care bill entirely but they never put the vote to the floor to repeal financial reform because the public supports financial reform. "He's not going to get this through the Congress, I believe," Frank said. Several members of the industry voiced their approval for the president's order, while others expressed concern and called for caution. "It's promising that President Trump is taking a proactive stance on re-examining regulations," said Ed Delgado, President and CEO of the Five Star Institute and former Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac executive. "Dodd-Frank as it stands was well-intended, but is complex and overbearing upon implementation and execution." Trump also signed a presidential memorandum instructing the Labor Department to delay an Obama-era rule requiring financial professionals to put their clients' interests first when giving advice on retirement investments. Brian Montgomery, former FHA Commissioner and Vice Chairman of the Washington D.C.-based think tank e Collingwood Group, echoed Delgado's sentiment on potential changes to Dodd- Frank. "During the campaign, I am fairly certain candidate Trump didn't say he supported fewer consumer protections; however, he did make clear that changes were needed to Dodd-Frank, and his recent comments signal that it's time for a common-sense approach to regulation," Montgomery said. "For one, the barrage of rules targeted at mortgage bankers has required them to spend hundreds of millions in technology upgrades most of which have nothing to do with improving the actual customer experience." Montgomery said one independent banker told him he spends 75 percent of his IT budget on Dodd-Frank mandated changes alone. "e new regulatory regime has also driven up the cost to originate a mortgage loan to $7,046 in 2015, up from $4,500 in 2008," he said. "is creates two major problems—lenders remain fearful of loan defaults and the heavy- handed government intrusion that follows and will only lend to borrowers with pristine credit, and it's now uneconomical for them to originate smaller balance mortgages." However, not all responses to a possible regulatory reduction were positive. Wade Henderson, President and CEO of e Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, took an opposing stance on the president's order. "Making the financial system more fair and transparent is essential to providing low- income and minority communities with more economic stability," Henderson said. "Over the past decade, our country has learned hard lessons about what happens when the game is rigged and regulators turn their backs to reckless subprime mortgages, payday loan debt traps, and shady bank account fees. President

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