NEWS FLASH

Bank Lobbying On Track To Reach Record High This Year | As the Occupy Wall Street protests have highlighted the outsize influence financial institutions wield in politics, banks’ spending on lobbying is on track to reach an all-time high this year. Lobbying expenditures by the five biggest spenders among commercial banks are up 12 percent so far this year compared to 2010, according to an analysis by the Charlotte Observer. Wells Fargo has been particularly profligate in its lobbying, with expenditures up 80 percent in the first three quarters of the year compared to last year. “Should this year’s pace continue, 2011 will be the sixth straight year that commercial bank lobbying has set a record,” according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks federal lobbying. Much of the lobbying has focused curbing the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, which passed last year, and the Federal Reserve’s dealing with debit card swipe fees.