During his presidential campaign, Republican Donald Trump said he would "get rid of" Dodd-Frank — the sweeping legislation passed in 2010 to address problems underlying the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Many Republicans hate the 2,300-page law, saying it is layered with far too many regulations. But Democrats say it provides valuable oversight of an industry that they believe took too many risks on Wall Street and too much advantage of customers on Main Street.

Now President-elect Trump's transition team is promising to "dismantle" the complex Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

"Bureaucratic red tape and Washington mandates are not the answer" to improving the financial system, the team said Thursday on its website.

Eoin Treacy's view

No one would argue with the contention that banks need to be regulated and their risk taking closely scrutinised. However, Dodd Frank micromanages their operations, with the result that they are sharply inhibited in what they can do. Its primary benefit has been for lawyers and compliance officers since armies of them are required to navigate the Act’s complicated format. 

Perhaps the most important effect of the legislation has been to retard the liquidity providing function of the sector with the result that banks have been relatively boring. That’s changing now. The prospect of loser regulation opens up new business lines for the US banking sector while the prospect of higher interest rates contributes to profitability in existing businesses. 

The S&P500 Banks / S&P500 ratio has bounced emphatically this week to extend its rebound from the July lows and is now testing the upper side of the developing seven-year relative base. A successful break above 0.12 would reassert banking sector relative outperformance beyond the short-term and signal a major change of fortunes for the sector overall.