In this report, we lay out the pending rules that U.S. agencies will try to speed to completion before Mr. Trump takes office. Although personnel at key agencies will not generally change after Inauguration Day (see Client Report ELECTION21), agency heads will do all they can to get as much done before Mr. Trump alters agency composition and powers and/or imposes the regulatory moratorium promised during the campaign. We have selected for attention only rules through the proposal stage on which comment has closed on grounds that these are closest to finalization and would best withstand challenge as near-term final rules. We note, though, that several of these rules face divided commissions and thus may be hard to finalize even with strong pressure from Democratic chairs. Although not a rulemaking action, a critical outstanding issue involves final decisions on the living wills GSIBs were required to refile in early October (see Client Report LIVINGWILL13). We had expected the FRB to bend more to the FDIC’s will on these plans, but the central bank may be still more willing to sanction one or another GSIB in hopes that this will give its GSIB regulatory and resolution framework more credibility than granted by GOP critics. A forthcoming report will address regulation and resolution of GSIBs and non-bank SIFIs in more detail.
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