Fed's Kashkari likes the chances of his too-big-to-fail bank overhaul under Trump

Neel Kashkari, the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank who wants to force U.S. banks to hold more capital in order head off a future financial crisis, on Saturday said he was optimistic about his plan’s chances under incoming president Donald Trump.

“I’m optimistic that if Congress now says we are going to take a fresh look at bank regulation, we are going to take a fresh look at Dodd Frank, there may be a real opportunity to weigh in and say, let’s be much more aggressive on capital requirements,” Kashkari told the American Economic Association.

Kashkari, who mounted an unsuccessful Republican bid in 2014 for governor of California, served as the administrator of TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, at the Treasury Department during the 2008 financial crisis.

After leaving Washington, he joined Pimco as a managing director and head of global equities. Before his time at Treasury, he was a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

In his first speech as head of the Minneapolis Fed in early 2016, Kashkari urged Congress to consider bold rules, including breaking up the largest banks or turning banks into “utilities” by creating huge cash cushions so they can’t fail. Such rules would go further than the post-crisis Dodd-Frank regulations.

— CNBC’s Matthew J. Belvedere contributed to this report.

Fed's Kashkari likes the chances of his too-big-to-fail bank overhaul under Trump