Burdensome Dodd-Frank regulations are crushing Maine credit unions
Bangor Daily News
Mar. 7, 2018
Congress could soon make it easier for Maine families to buy homes and start businesses.
In December, a Senate committee approved a bipartisan bill — co-sponsored by Maine Sen. Angus King and supported by Sen. Susan Collins — that would scale back arduous reporting and accounting regulations for credit unions and community banks. Cutting that red tape would reduce the cost of loans for people throughout Maine — and the rest of the country.
Now the bill will head to the full Senate for consideration.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, lawmakers imposed expansive regulations on the financial services industry, chiefly through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The thinking behind the rules was sound — the government wanted to clamp down on the excessive risk-taking that caused the crisis. But lawmakers cast their net too wide with Dodd-Frank and imposed restrictions on lenders that had nothing to do with the financial crisis — especially credit unions.