JPMorgan Exec: Trump Puts Banks Into ‘Go Mode’

American banks are reportedly in “go mode” with Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

So says Mary Erdoes, head of asset and wealth management for J.P. Morgan, who said Tuesday (Jan. 21) that the banking giant was hopeful the new administration would roll back some of its predecessor’s regulatory restrictions.

“If you look at the last administration and the number of new, significant regulations, it was eight times the number of significant new regulations versus the prior Trump administration,” said Erdoes, whose comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos were reported by the Financial Times (FT).

“With that comes multiple millions of man hours of paperwork. Work . . . that clogs up the system and stops the economy from continuing to have that very healthy flywheel. So we’re really looking forward to that.”

The FT notes that Erdoes remarks came at a time when Europe’s banks are worried that a relaxed regulatory approach in the U.S. could place them at a competitive disadvantage if regulators on the continent call for tighter application of rules such as Basel 3.1.

During the same panel discussion at Davos, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters said it was important that rules were “set consistently globally, so that we don’t have this arbitrage from market to market.”

Although Europe might find it difficult to scale back certain regulations, the U.K. could shift heavily toward the U.S. system, one senior banking executive told the FT.

“The UK government will be at the forefront of deregulation,” the executive said. “They have delayed the implementation of Basel III to see how or if it is implemented in the US.”

While Trump issued a wave of executive orders on his first day in office this week, the administration’s plans for banking regulation are not yet clear, though potential cabinet nominees have apparently floated some sweeping changes.

As covered here last month, some of these ideas include abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and moving deposit insurance into the Treasury Department; eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) or confining its responsibilities to consumer education.

There’s also the idea of either merging the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve or having just one of these agencies regulate banks.