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Abstract: 

There is a continuing and increasing debate over the scope of the federal preemption of state banking laws. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the changes and clarifications to this body of law made by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Overall, the Dodd-Frank Act largely preserves current federal bank preemption law despite the added language that state consumer advocates and others have interpreted as a weakening of the preemption powers of federal banking regulators. However, the Act does newly empower state regulators to enforce state consumer financial laws and other state laws. In addition, several important issues relating to interpretation of federal preemption standards under the Dodd-Frank Act still remain unanswered.

Keywords:  federal banking preemption laws; state law preemption standards; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) preemptive rules; national banks; state banks; Watters v. Wachovia Bank; Barnett Bank of Marion County, N.A. v. Nelson, Florida Insura

Affiliations:  1: Attorney at Law.