Wyden Issues Report on Wall Street Windfalls from Trump’s Tax Scam

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today released a Senate Finance Committee report highlighting how US banks received billions of dollars in tax windfalls as their profits reached historic highs.

According to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), banks recorded $56 billion in profits in the first three months of 2018. FDIC estimates that banks would have continued to break profit records even without the corporate tax breaks from Trump’s law.

“While CEOs are cashing in on stock buyback schemes and raking in tax cuts, hardworking Americans are left with Trump’s broken promise to increase wages by $4,000,” Wyden said. “Wall Street is already awash in capital as it enjoys the spoils of record-breaking profits. Big Banks have taken this inequity one step further by shuttering branches and slapping penalties on low-income customers after receiving billion-dollar windfalls from Trump’s tax law.”

Since Trump signed his tax bill into law, CEOs of six of the largest US banks have announced over $115 billion in stock buybacks. These buybacks pad CEOs’ financial portfolios and benefit foreign shareholders. An analysis by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that corporate insiders sell five times as much stock after a stock buyback announcement.

CEOs of six of the largest US banks received $130 million in compensation in 2017. These CEOs were paid up to nearly 400 times more than their typical employee.

A copy of the report can be found here.

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