Bank lobbyists ride a 15-year high

Dive Brief:

• As of Dec. 31, 486 national lobbyists were working for banks whose assets totaled $50 billion or more, as well as their seven trade groups, according to data from OpenSecrets that Reuters analyzed. That’s a 3.4% increase from 2022, and the highest figure since such tracking began in 2008.

• Some of the sharpest growth has been seen among the 23 banks that have more than $100 billion in assets but are not among the eight largest U.S. Wall Street banks. That group counted 255 registered lobbyists last year, an 11% jump over 2022.

• A proposed revamp of capital requirements, issued by regulators in July, seems "a likely culprit" in the lobbying increase, judging by how frequently capital issues are cited in such midsize banks’ lobbying disclosures, Daniel Auble, a senior researcher at OpenSecrets, told Reuters.

Dive Insight:

Among that second tier of banks — with $100 billion or more but outside the top eight — TD had one registered lobbyist in 2021, compared with 20 in 2023, according to the figures.

The bank told Reuters it had two in-house lobbyists and used two outside firms.

"These two outside contracts are very modest and do not represent a material change in TD's aggregate lobbying activities at the federal level," the bank said in a statement.

In what may be another factor in TD’s increase, the Canadian bank in early 2022 proposed acquiring First Horizon Bank in a transaction that would have significantly raised its profile in the Southeast. That deal met stiff resistance from lawmakers and community advocates. The banks terminated it in May 2023 over “uncertainty” as to when the deal might gain lagging regulatory approvals. Among the complaints, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and three members of Congress wrote the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, citing a Capitol Forum report that alleged TD incentivized employees to enroll customers in new accounts and services like overdraft protection without their consent.

Truist is also among banks of that size that increased its number of lobbyists between 2021 and 2023 — to 20, from 12, according to OpenSecrets. The bank declined to comment to Reuters.

Capital One reported 30 lobbyists at the end of 2023 — nearly double the number it had in 2016, OpenSecrets found. The bank did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Lobbying spend for banks and trade organizations analyzed by Reuters was $84.6 million in 2023, the most since 2015. However, the publication reported, cumulative inflation cancels out the increase.

Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Bank spent $1.8 million in 2023, according to the wire service. Citizens, meanwhile, doubled its figure, to $1.4 million in 2023. And Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington spent $483,000 in 2023, its most in eight years, Reuters reported.

Citizens and Huntington declined to comment to the wire service. Regions did not respond to an email seeking comment.

For reference, Citi — one of the top-tier Wall Street giants — spent $5 million on lobbying in 2023, the most of any bank analyzed. The Bank Policy Institute, a trade group, spent $3.4 million, an 80% annual increase over 2022, according to Reuters.

The eight U.S. Wall Street banks counted 191 lobbyists at the end of 2023 — a figure that has largely stayed flat since the 2007-08 financial crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic took many in-person lobbying meetings and made them remote, reducing travel and hospitality expenses, said Camden Fine, onetime CEO of the trade group Independent Community Bankers of America who is now CEO of Calvert Advisors. The lower expenses mean lobbying firms can increase headcount faster, Fine said.

While Wall Street heavyweights have been a constant in lobbying — "The big banks always have a seat at the table," Fine told Reuters — the second-tier banks sometimes need to work harder to be heard.

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