Co-Author Of Dodd-Frank Inextricably Linked To Failed Bank

In 2018, former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank (D) lobbied heavily for changes to his signature legislative accomplishment — the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Frank retired from Congress five years before but was still active in the private sector.

As a board member of the now-bankrupt Signature Bank.

After receiving over $1 million as a Signature board member, Frank helped the 2018 bipartisan effort to weaken Dodd-Frank. The banking expert used his curriculum vitae to tear down the regulatory framework he put in place less than a decade before as the House Financial Services Committee chairman.

Reporting at the time on the endeavor's success, The Washington Post cited Frank, who “denied it would increase the risks of another financial crisis.”

American Liberty News' Norm Leahy chronicled on Monday how regulators seized control of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank over the weekend, turning both over to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Frank's role in downplaying the risks is receiving fresh scrutiny, as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports:

The 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation set tougher regulatory safeguards on banks with more than $50 billion in assets. After leaving office and joining Signature's board, Mr. Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, publicly advocated for easing those new standards for smaller banks.

Part of what former President Donald Trump signed into law in 2018 raised the asset threshold to $250 billion, meaning Signature and other regional banks no longer needed to comply with the extra regulation set out in Dodd-Frank. 

After the bill was signed, New York-based Signature more than doubled in size to $110 billion in assets, and $88.6 billion in deposits as of the end of 2022. The stricter requirements, had they been in place, might have prompted bank executives and their overseers to move more quickly to place the lender on sounder financial footing, some industry observers say.

Still, the former congressman vigorously denies that the rollback precipitated the debacle.

Mr. Frank, who has earned more than $2.4 million in compensation from Signature Bank since 2015, rejected the idea that the regulatory change abetted Signature's collapse.

“Nobody has shown me any evidence of systemic or other kinds of fraud that would have been prevented,” Frank said defiantly.

Indeed, he's supposedly found another culprit.

The Massachusetts Democrat claims there was “no objective reason” for Signature Bank's seizure other than to sideline the last cryptocurrency-friendly bank to show “crypto is toxic.”

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden reiterated in televised remarks Monday that the federal government would guarantee depositors access to their money.

Seeking to calm fears of a domino effect, officials and agencies issued public statements throughout the weekend with the same underlying message: your money is safe.

Biden went further, proclaiming he would hold those “responsible for this mess fully accountable and to continuing our efforts to strengthen oversight and regulation of larger banks so that we are not in this position again.”

How far the threat of punishment extends or whether it even materializes remains unclear.

Reports show Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) also has close ties to policymakers. WSJ notes that a prominent Treasury Department official under former President Obama served on SVB's board since 2015.

Jeff Hauser, the executive director at Revolving Door Project, a progressive watchdog that monitors Wall Street and corporate America's influence in the rulemaking process, told WSJ that Frank's involvement with deregulation after imposing regulatory safeguards appears to be “a classic case of having your cake and eating it, too.”

READ NEXT: Feds Move To Stop Potential Banking Crisis While Remaining Woefully Ignorant