DealBook: Wall Street Continues to Spend Big on Lobbying

As the Dodd-Frank Act reaches its one-year anniversary, Wall Street’s army of lobbyists continue its aggressive campaign to tame the financial regulatory law.

The financial industry has spent more than $100 million so far this year to court regulators and lawmakers, who are finalizing new regulations for lending, trading and debit card fees. During the second quarter, Wall Street spent $50.3 million on lobbying, a small dip from the prior period, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

“In 2010, the Dodd-Frank financial reform was one of the biggest shows in town, and that continues this year,” said Michael Beckel, a spokesman for the center.

Big banks are among the most prolific spenders. JPMorgan Chase’s team of in-house lobbyists spent $3.3 million, a slight uptick over last year. The biggest war chest among organizations focused primarily on Dodd-Frank belongs to the American Bankers Association, which so far spent $4.6 million on lobbying. The organization wrestled the top spending spot from the Financial Services Roundtable, a fellow trade group that represents 100 of the nation’s largest financial firms.

Overall lobbying is down about 5 percent from last year when lawmakers were writing Dodd-Frank, though spending remains high as financial regulators carry out the broad mandate. Rather than dictate the minutiae of every rule, lawmakers instructed regulators to write some 300 new rules for Wall Street.

“Until it is chiseled in stone, the lobbying continues,” Mr. Beckel said.

Lobbyists focused their fight in recent months on the first major batch of Dodd-Frank deadlines that loomed in July, the law’s one-year anniversary. The milestone was supposed to be Day One for many Dodd-Frank derivatives rules.

But under pressure from industry lobbyists, regulators backed off the deadlines. In June, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to delay the derivatives rules for up to six months. Meanwhile, The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also backing off a plan curb banks’ control over the derivatives market, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Wall Street’s campaign also yielded results from the Federal Reserve. In late June, the Fed softened restrictions on fees that banks charge retailers for debit card purchases, saving the financial industry an estimated $3.5 billion a year.

Much of the wrangling over the rules has played out during closed-door meetings in Washington. Over all, regulators held more than 2,100 Dodd-Frank meetings since the law passed last July.

The commodities commission, in particular, has been a hot spot for lobbying action. The agency’s chairman, Gary Gensler, has held at least 165 meetings on Dodd-Frank — the most of any regulator, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group that monitors lobbying in Washington. Next in line with 106 meetings is Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration official who helped start the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The petitioners include a range of banks, Wall Street lobbying firms and consumer groups. Goldman paid 83 visits to regulators, the most of any bank, to discuss derivatives among other topics.

But Dodd-Frank meetings are not limited to technical discussions of arcane financial products.

The Banking Agency of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzogovina met with the Federal Reserve about “implications of the Dodd-Frank Act to emerging economies,” according to the Sunlight Foundation. The Democratic Republic of Congo also dispatched officials to huddle with the S.E.C. about Dodd-Frank’s little-known requirement that corporations disclose whether they manufacture products using so-called conflict minerals from Congo. A cross section of corporate interests — including 7-Eleven, Target, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and JetBlue Airways — also weighed in.

“It’s amazing how far-reaching Dodd-Frank is, and how much impact it will have beyond the financial sector,” said Bill Allison, Sunlight’s editorial director.

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