Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following President Biden’s call to regulators to reverse deregulatory measures enacted by former President Trump to weaken bank safeguards and supervision.

“I applaud President Biden for urging our nation’s regulators to take immediate action to reverse the deregulatory banking rules implemented by the administration of the twice-impeached and newly indicted former President Trump. At the time, I led the effort with many of my colleagues in sounding the alarm on how weakening capital, liquidity, and stress testing rules for large banks would harm our nation’s financial system. Later in 2020, I urged then President-Elect Biden to appoint regulators who would reverse these harmful rollbacks. The recent bank failures not only prove these warnings to have been correct, but also emphasize the urgency of scrapping these Trump-era rules and moving quickly to implement new, better rules that will strengthen our banking system and protect our nation’s small businesses and hardworking employees.

“As we heard this week during our Committee’s first hearing into the investigation of the recent bank failures, there is bipartisan agreement on the need for stronger oversight of large banks to prevent another collapse like SVB’s. The Biden Administration’s planned rules are just one part of the solution. There’s still a need for legislation, particularly around deposit insurance and making these prudential requirements mandatory, and it’s important that Congress act quickly as I look forward to working with the Biden Administration, regulators and my Republican colleagues to pass the common-sense safeguards our banking system needs.”

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