Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., co-author of the biggest rewrite of Wall Street rules since the Great Depression, will retire instead of seeking another term after Massachusetts reshaped his congressional district.
Mr. Frank, serving his 16th term, was chairman of the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 credit crisis and was a top negotiator on the $700 billion banking industry bailout. In 2009 and 2010, he was the lead House negotiator on what would become the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act — a 2,300 page overhaul of the U.S. financial regulatory system.
“The decision was precipitated by congressional redistricting, though not entirely caused by it,” Mr. Frank said Monday at a news conference. “I’ve been ambivalent about running, not because I don’t think the job is important, but because there are other things I’d like to do in my life before my career is over.”
Mr. Frank said he had “tentatively” decided to retire after this term when he completed the Dodd-Frank Act last year. He said he changed his mind when Republicans took control of the House and he saw their plans for financial regulation.
He said he plans to write, teach and lecture, and would not be retiring from commenting on public policy.
Mr. Frank has served in the House since 1981.
He led the push for the regulatory overhaul that bears his name along with Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who retired from the Senate instead of seeking re-election in 2010. They shepherded the measure through a yearlong battle fraught with partisan fights and fueled by millions of dollars from groups lobbying to shape the future of financial oversight.
Mr. Frank’s departure may pose problems for the banking industry, with Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., in line to succeed him as top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, according to Jaret Seiberg, a senior policy analyst with the Washington research group at Guggenheim Partners. “Waters at times is very hostile to the banks so this is a situation worth watching,” Mr. Seiberg wrote Monday in a note to clients. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Mel Watt, D-N.C., may also be contenders, Mr. Seiberg wrote.