Wall Street Lobbying to Opt Out of Dodd-Frank

A Public Citizen report released today analyzes the efforts of 24 financial-services companies and trade groups to opt themselves out of Dodd-Frank's limits on incentive-based compensation. The report finds that, "[c]ollectively, the organizations have spent $242.4 million on lobbying since the beginning of 2010" and "have deployed 712 lobbyists, of whom 387 previously worked for the federal government, either as congressional staffers or in executive branch positions." Most of the organizations are seeking to be partially or completely exampted from rulemaking on Section 956 of Dodd-Frank, which imposes disclosure requirements and substantive restrictions on incentive-based compensation.  

In addition, the report finds that the organizations made $15.6 million in campaign contributions to congressional candidates during the 2010 campaign cycle.