The idea of Chairman Sherrod Brown at the helm of the Senate Banking Committee is the only thing
scarier to Wall Street than Sen. Elizabeth Warren sitting on that committee. For good reason; Brown has made it clear that too big to fail banks are simply just too big to exist. The chairman they want? Sen. Chuck Schumer, but it's not at all clear that
that's who they'll get.
Senator Charles Schumer has shown no shortage of ambition. So the New York Democrat’s silence about his possible interest in taking over as chairman of the Banking Committee worries large banks. [...]
“The chairmanship is Schumer’s for the taking but it seems like his aspirations are to be majority leader, and you don’t usually become majority leader by taking over the Senate Banking Committee,” said Jaret Seiberg, senior policy analyst at Washington Research Group, a unit of Guggenheim Securities LLC.
With current chair Tim Johnson retiring, Sen. Jack Reed is next in line, but he's much likelier to want to take the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee, where he's also next in line to retiring Carl Levin. Senate rules allow a senator to serve as chair on only one committee. Then there's Schumer, and then there's Brown. There's incentive and disincentive for Schumer to take the Banking position. Wall Street is a constituency, and looking out for the big banks in a really prominent position could put him on the wrong side of the Democratic base. The incentives might be fewer; the position is one of the most lucrative in terms of campaign fundraising, but Schumer has no problems raising money, anyway.
Then there's Brown.
Meanwhile, Brown’s office says he’s definitely interested in the post. He could use it to further his efforts to reduce the size of the largest U.S. banks, a push he has made each year since 2010 when he proposed the limits as an amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act.
“The risk that there would be legislation to shrink the six biggest banks would go up dramatically” with Brown as chairman, Seiberg said. “He’s on the record that we haven’t fixed too-big-to-fail and more needs to be done.”
One Wall Street analyst's "risk" is Main Street's opportunity. Maybe it's time to start a campaign for Chuck Schumer for majority leader.