00:00The U.S. has cut red tape on Wall Street to big effect.
00:03Now, Europe's banks want the same, and they're feeling hopeful.
00:06From fossil fuels to finance, deregulation is a key pillar of President Trump's second term.
00:12The administration has vowed to free banks from what they see as excessive restrictions
00:16brought in after the 2008 financial crisis.
00:19Now, while the EU doesn't want to be seen as chasing the U.S., the mood music is changing.
00:24The European Commission has promised to tackle some of the banks' biggest complaints.
00:28And the proposals on the table could release hundreds of billions of euros in capital and
00:33liquidity trapped by national ring fencing.
00:36All this has been propelled by politicians and banks clamoring for action to preserve
00:41what they call a global-level playing field, as their U.S. rivals enjoy a tailwind from
00:45Trump's rule-cutting agenda.
00:47But, as is often the case in Europe, political buying is one thing.
00:51Europe's regulators, that's another matter.
00:53They're much less open to a potential rollback of restrictions, wary of future crises,
00:58and the wider economic misery they bring.
01:01The most concrete result so far has been the EU's deferral of a portion of a new global
01:05rule known as the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book, until there's clarity on
01:10the U.S.'s own plans.
01:12Those rules would increase capital requirements for trading, an area where Europe's banks
01:16compete directly with Wall Street, and as such would have been disadvantaged by early adoption.
01:21The bottom line, it's all setting the scene for global clashes over how to responsibly ease
01:27existing rules, not to mention whether new ones are needed for the rise of AI in private
01:31markets.
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