Backing Trump Has Paid Off for Silicon Valley Billionaires Like Marc Andreessen

"For more than a decade, Silicon Valley venture capitalists have poured enormous sums of money into newfangled technology companies seeking to disrupt, and even supplant, the traditional financial system and sidestep its burdensome regulations. At the same time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has policed that effort, going after such businesses for deceiving, overcharging or otherwise taking advantage of their customers by enacting rules, filing lawsuits and shutting down the worst offenders."

"This cat-and-mouse game has long rankled tech leaders, but it has especially irritated Marc Andreessen, one of America's most well-known investors and an outsize figure in the so-called fintech industry. His firm has seeded eight companies since 2016 that landed in the crosshairs of the small watchdog agency that Congress created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect vulnerable consumers from exploitation, according to court records, agency documents and interviews with people familiar with the matters."

"The CFPB exists to "terrorize finance, terrorize financial institutions, prevent fintech, prevent new competition, new startups that want to compete with the big banks," Andreessen told podcaster Joe Rogan last year, invoking the agency as an example of government bloat ripe for the carving. Of particular concern to Andreessen was federal regulators' targeting of the freewheeling crypto industry under President Joe Biden - an effort that legal experts said would have planted a costly roadblock in the path of several companies' rapid growth."

Silicon Valley venture capitalists invested heavily in fintech startups for over a decade, aiming to disrupt and bypass the traditional banking system and its regulations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforced consumer protections by issuing rules, suing companies and shutting down offenders. Marc Andreessen has been particularly critical of the CFPB after his firm backed multiple companies that drew agency scrutiny; eight portfolio firms since 2016 faced inquiries, filings, or penalties. Some inquiries produced consent orders, fines and a lifetime industry ban for one company. Andreessen publicly accused the CFPB of trying to stifle fintech competition and expressed concern about regulatory pressure on crypto.

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