Trump considers breaking up large banks

May 02, 2017 | 09:45

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NEW YORK: President Donald Trump is reviewing a possible break-up of large US banks, according to a published interview on Monday (May 1).

Several liberal Democrats, including Senator Bernie Sanders, have also supported a break-up of the biggest banks, but US President Trump did not disclose the details about what an eventual break-up plan would look like. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

Trump told Bloomberg News that he was considering a "21st century" version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that separated consumer lending and investment banking and was repealed in 1999 by President Bill Clinton.

"I'm looking at that right now," Trump said in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg. "There's some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we're going to look at that."

Trump's comments are his first on the subject and follow other statements from administration officials such as National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressing broad support for the idea.

Several liberal Democrats, including Senator Bernie Sanders, have also supported a break-up of the biggest banks.

Shares of large banks gave up some of their gains following the Bloomberg report, but stayed in positive territory.

Near 1730 GMT, JPMorgan Chase was up 0.6 per cent at US$87.46, Citigroup was up 0.8 per cent at US$59.61 and Bank of America was up 1.2 per cent at US$23.61.

AFP

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