What Is Dodd-Frank? Explainer On Obama's Wall Street Reform Rule Trump Could Kill

President Donald Trump is expected to walk back the Dodd-Frank law Friday, White House sources confirmed to multiple media outlets. But what exactly is Dodd-Frank? Here’s a breakdown.

The act’s full name is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. It was passed by President Barack Obama’s administration in 2010 in response to the financial crisis that detonated two years before.

What’s the goal of Dodd-Frank? To put it simply, the point of the Dodd-Frank Act was to make banks and other financial institutions behave better. It established measures to regulate and reform those financial organizations to stop them from making the risky and irresponsible decisions that led to 2008’s stock market crash and the recession.

So how exactly did it regulate all of those banks? The Dodd Frank Act is about 2,300 pages long and has several parts — here are some significant components:

• The Volcker Rule places restrictions on speculative trading, as well as restrictions on how banks are allowed to invest.
• The Financial Stability Oversight Council is in charge of regulating the financial system — the people on the council look for and restrict reckless decisions. The council can break up an entire bank if it poses too big of a risk.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does precisely what it sounds like: It’s meant to protect customers. It does this by educating customers about mortgages and by stopping deceptive mortgage lending.
• The act established the Office of Credit Ratings for the Securities and Exchange Commission — the office was set up to make sure credit rating agencies are giving out accurate information.
• Dodd-Frank also expanded the whistleblower program so that people within those banks and financial institutions can speak up about wrongdoing.

For more specifics, here’s a cheat sheet put together by the Morrison & Foerster law firm.

Why is it called Dodd-Frank? The act was sponsored by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-N.J.). It was named after them.

Why does Trump want to roll it back? Critics have said the Dodd-Frank Act is a case of government overreach that does not effectively accomplish what it’s set out to do, and Trump agrees.

"Dodd-Frank has made it impossible for bankers to function," Trump told Reuters when he was running for president in May. "It makes it very hard for bankers to loan money for people to create jobs, for people with businesses to create jobs. And that has to stop."