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Bessent makes the case for small bank deregulation at G20, but the evidence has a fintech footnote

9/1/2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used a G20 finance ministers gathering in Asheville, North Carolina on Monday to argue that post-crisis regulation has gutted the community banking sector and that lighter rules are the remedy.

What complicates the case: the revival he cited as proof, a surge in new bank charter applications, has been driven largely by fintech and digital asset companies, not the Main Street lenders at the center of his argument.

Speaking to a room that included JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon, Bessent said post-financial crisis rules have contributed to the disappearance of half of the country's small and community banks.

The argument carries a pointed edge. The 2023 failures of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional lenders arrived despite, Bessent said, all that regulatory supervision.