For the most part, Treasury Nominee Steven Mnuchin's five-hour confirmation hearing on January 19, 2017 focused on responding probing questions about his past associations and financial reporting oversights. Amid the sparring, however, Mnuchin was able to reveal a bit about his plans for Dodd-Frank, the Volcker Rule, and his thoughts on the future of financial regulation. Most notably, the wholesale repeal of Dodd-Frank promised during the election campaign does not appear to be on his agenda.  While he believes some aspects of Dodd-Frank regulations have gone too far and are stifling growth, Mr. Mnuchin said that rather than rolling back regulations, he favored placing limits on the existing framework to make it fairer, particularly to smaller financial firms. 

In a sparsely worded press release on January 3, 2017, the Bank for International Settlements announced that the January 8 meeting of the group of central bank governors and heads of supervision (GHOS) has been postponed. At this meeting, the GHOS were to finalize long awaited rules that will determine how much capital lenders have to set aside against loans and other assets. Citing unfinished work necessary to calibrate banks' risk-weighted capital ratios, BIS chose to move finalization off for the present.  

SEC Chair Mary Jo White is not sticking around at the SEC after the inauguration next month. But she does not plan to be idle in her remaining time at the Commission. In a pointed response to an earlier request by GOP senators to stop issuing new rules called for by Dodd-Frank, White has vowed to push ahead with a list of open regulatory matters.  Chairman White’s letter strikes a defiant tone and asserts the necessary and statutory independence of the SEC from political meddling.