Bankers are split on President Donald Trump’s plan to consolidate federal bank regulatory agencies, according to IntraFi’s Q4 2024 survey of bank executives.
Fifty-two percent support consolidating federal bank regulatory agencies, while 48 percent oppose the idea. Eighty-one percent of those supporting consolidation said the number of examinations and agencies has created too much regulatory burden. Nearly half of those opposed said the current system is a check on “overly-zealous regulators.” One-in-four don’t trust Congress to change the system effectively.
Trump’s administration has focused on reducing the size or eliminating regulatory agencies it deems as being bloated or redundant. Last weekend, the administration effectively paused the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s work.
Fifty-eight percent of bankers said Section 1071 should be amended or eliminated. The fate of Section 1071 is in serious jeopardy after the CFPB paused enforcement of the proposal in recent weeks. Section 1071 requires lenders to collect and report information about lending to minority-owned, women-owned and small businesses. Last week, House Small Business Finance Committee Chair Roger Williams (R-Texas) introduced a bill that would repeal Section 1071.
The vast majority of bankers said the independence of federal banking agencies should be preserved, pushing back on suggestions that the executive branch should hold more sway over how they operate.
Two-thirds were worried that growth in stablecoins could incentivize consumers to pull funds from banks and place them into stablecoins. Sixty-two percent of executives were worried that Trump’s support for crypto will have a disproportionate role in determining the administration’s approach toward the financial sector.
Conducted over two weeks in January, the survey included responses from 120 bank CEOs; 57 presidents; 261 CFOs; and 27 COOs.
Other report findings included:
- Fifty-three percent said the economy is unchanged from a year ago, compared with 32 percent who see worse conditions. Forty-three percent expect overall economic conditions will be improved a year from now. Thirty-nine percent said economic conditions will be unchanged.
- Forty-four percent said loan demand had increased over the past 12 months, with 34 percent seeing unchanged demand. Twenty-three percent reported a drop in demand. Fifty-five percent expect loan demand will increase in the next 12 months, compared to only 12 percent who anticipate a decrease.