Midterms: banking and capital markets regulation to stay the course

Matt Bisanz and Anna Pinedo are featured in this article.

For Anna Pinedo, partner and co-lead of Mayer Brown’s global capital markets practice, the leadership change in the House of Representatives will likely result in some moderation of policymaking for certain regulators.

“While the CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] was already taking a pretty moderate course, the SEC might tone down some of its ambitious reforms, such as climate disclosures or the cybersecurity rule,” she said. “There may be less appetite to take a "roll-forward-at-any-cost" approach, as there will be more impetus for challenging the regulator on such issues.”

“Last year’s decision to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to curb emissions and other pending decisions that are moving up to the Supreme Court, involving the FTC [Federal Trade Commission], the SEC and the CFPB, show a real willingness from the industry to push back on different areas of regulatory authority,” said Matthew Bisanz, partner in Mayer Brown's financial services regulatory and enforcement practice. “The way the rulemaking process may change over the next year and half will largely come from the judicial side, as opposed to the legislative side or the congressional arena, with more and more people willing to file lawsuits about rules they find objectionable.”