JACKSON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today attended the Young Bankers Leadership Conference luncheon in Jackson, Miss. Wicker spoke to more than 100 young Mississippi bankers about his work to support community banks and protect Mississippi consumers from Obama-era regulations that have cost billions of dollars.

Wicker highlighted the harmful regulatory impact the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” still has on the financial industry and consumers seven years later.  Wicker voted against passage of Dodd-Frank in 2010.

More than 50 percent of financial assets in the United States are now controlled by five banks, while at the same time more than 2,000 community banks have ceased operations, including 15 in Mississippi.  The law also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Wicker noted is a “massive concentration of Washington power with no accountability” and “lacks congressional oversight.”

In August, Wicker introduced legislation to help small community banks by exempting them from requirements meant for much larger institutions. The legislation would target the punitive treatment of Trust Preferred Securities held by community banks under Basel III capital rules. These particular regulations have caused some small banks in rural areas to consolidate with larger banks, leaving some communities without local banking options. Wicker is fighting to ensure local communities have access to banking services.