September 19, 2019 - This week LSTA members and staff met with Rep. Andy Barr (KY-06).  Barr, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, has led bipartisan efforts to pass legislation that would have revised the Volcker Rule in a way that would have permitted banks to hold the debt securities of legacy CLOs and to revise the risk retention rule to allow managers to more easily comply. More recently, Barr was a key participant at a hearing of a subcommittee of the HFSC explaining that neither leveraged loans nor CLOs presented systemic risk.  At the meeting Barr discussed numerous topics of importance to financial markets such as trade negotiations (he’s optimistic), the Fed’s interest rate policies (he believes Chairman Powel is doing a good job), prospects for financial regulatory legislation (low in the near term), and the prospects of additional hearings on the risks of loans (high).  Barr was keenly interested in the loan market and engaged in a robust discussion.