Amid recent media reports of banks manipulating interest rates, cheating consumers, and doing business with money launderers, the Center for Responsive Politics‘ early review of second quarter lobbying filings reveals a a noticeable drop in lobbying expenditures for a few (now infamous) banks.

Overall, banks maintained strong visibility in the halls of Congress and at the regulatory agencies. But Barclays, whose CEO Bob Diamond resigned last month after the British bank was fined for manipulating information that affects a key interest rate known as LIBOR, barely registered a lobbying presence over the last three months. The disgraced bank reported spending only $160,000 in the most recent quarter, and $450,000 in the first quarter of 2012.

By this time last year, Barclays had spent $2,300,000, almost four times its 2012 year-to-date amount.

Barclays lobbyist Patrick Durkin has managed to keep himself busy during the lull, however, becoming the top lobbyist-bundler for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Durkin has brought in more than $1.1 million for Romney.

Second-quarter filings from Bank of America, also implicated in the LIBOR scandal, show a similar, though not quite as dramatic, decrease in expenditures. A second quarter total of $500,000 (including the bank’s subsidiaries) brings its 2012 lobbying spending to $1,370,000 thus far, a drop of nearly 13 percent from the $1,570,000 in expenditures it posted for the first six months of 2011. The banking giant’s outlays for lobbying were much higher in 2010, when it spent $1,190,000 in the second quarter alone.

Though its expenditures have fallen, Bank of America is still an active voice in continued efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system. Last quarter the bank reported lobbying on several bills that would alter the implementation and structure of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. One such measure being considered in the House, H.R. 1838, would repeal a provision in the law prohibiting the federal government from “bailing out” registered swap dealers or swap participants like Bank of America.

Two other U.S. banks, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, are reported to be involved in the LIBOR rate setting scheme. At the time of this post, Citigroup had yet to file its lobbying report for the second quarter. JP Morgan’s second quarter expenditures, totaling $1,540,000.00, mirror its past levels. The bank also continues to lobby on bills that deal with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Another bank in trouble with regulators, Capital One, spent $610,000 lobbying the US government in the second quarter, increasing its expenditures by about 28 percent from the second quarter of 2011. Capital One this week was slapped with the first major fine by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a creation of the Dodd-Frank law. The bureau is requiring the bank to reimburse $150 million to customers for pressuring and misleading card holders into buying add-on products, like identity theft protection, that were ineffective or unnecessary.

The bank reported lobbying on H.R. 1315, the Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2011, which would alter the procedures and powers of the very agency that handed out the fine.



And our list couldn’t be complete without HSBC Holdings. A year-long Senate investigation revealed this week that HSBC’s U.S. bank has been doing business with money launderers and potential terrorist financiers. The bank’s compliance chief has stepped down, but its lobbying arm has remained strong. Second-quarter lobbying expenditures for HSBC totaled $776,000.00, a 65 percent increase from spending in the second quarter of 2011.

Stay tuned in the coming days as Center for Responsive Politics researchers continue to analyze this quarter’s lobbying reports.

Lobbying researcher Sarah Bryner contributed to this report.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

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