Bloomberg's Yalman Onaran takes a glance at the state of play on the consumer protection front, and sizes up the influence that the banking lobby has been able to exert on ongoing efforts to reign in the excesses that caused the 2008 economic meltdown. Overall, it's a bit of the ol' good news/bad news:
Banks and securities firms spent $193 million to fund political campaigns for the 2008 elections and raise even more money through events that their trade groups organize. They have successfully fought the administration's efforts to limit executive pay and are battling against draft legislation governing the $592 trillion market for derivatives.
When it comes to consumer banking, the industry's lobbyists are no longer all-powerful. Banks lost their bid to squelch new credit card rules that Obama signed into law in May. They lobbied for months before a bill that would have forced them to renegotiate mortgages failed in the Senate.
Now the banks and their trade associations are lobbying furiously to kill Obama's plan to create the new financial protection agency, which was approved by the House Financial Services Committee in late October and is likely to face a full House vote by the end of 2009.
Onaran goes on to attribute some of the waning influence on the overwhelming public sentiment against the banking industry, the "weakened position" of major players post-bailout, and the difficulty that varied interest groups are having coalescing around "how they want the bill rewritten."
Nevertheless, the lobbyists have not surrendered, and that revolving door remains a-spin:
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. bank, got 48 percent of its revenue from consumer lending in the first nine months of 2009. The bank, which was one of the least scathed by the crisis, has stepped up its lobbying. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon now visits the capital twice a month, meeting with administration officials and congressional leaders, up from twice a year in 2006.
"JPMorgan also added two lobbyists to its Washington staff, which includes former Commerce Secretary William Daley. Jill Blickstein, who was previously chief of staff at the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration, was one of the new hires."
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Banks Discover Consumer Protection Too Big to Fail [Bloomberg]
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