Choice Act 2.0: Key Capital Markets and Securities Law Provisions

Choice Act 2.0: Key Capital Markets and Securities Law Provisions

May 2, 2017, Covington Alert

On April 19, 2017, the House Financial Services Committee (the “Committee”) released a new “discussion draft” of the Financial CHOICE Act (“CHOICE Act 2.0”), its comprehensive regulatory reform bill aimed at revising or repealing many features of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”). The Committee released the first version of the bill in June 2016.

Prospects for enactment of the CHOICE Act 2.0 are dim, at best. In its omnibus form, the bill is not expected to have substantial, if any, bipartisan support, and in the Senate, the legislative filibuster probably dooms its fate. However, it is possible that discrete pieces of the bill could have bipartisan appeal and thus might be able to be passed separately, and perhaps in short order.

This client alert summarizes some of the more noteworthy provisions that would affect the securities laws and regulation of capital markets. The bill also includes significant changes to the regulation of banks and other financial institutions, which we described in our client alert published on April 24, 2017.