Brian Singer, head of the Dynamic Allocation Strategies team at William Blair, told Forbes.com in a recent interview that he believes the financial sector’s challenges will persist no matter which U.S. presidential candidate wins the election in November.
“Financials are an avoid to a short for us,” he said.
The article highlights Hillary Clinton’s increasingly adversarial tone on big banks, which is influenced by Bernie Sanders’ call for a breakup of the banks. Clinton “may get an anti-bank running mate to combat the image she’s cozy with Wall Street,” says Singer.
Singer goes on to say that he doesn’t expect Clinton to push for any relief from Dodd-Frank financial reforms, but believes Donald Trump would take a different approach. “Trump would declaw [Dodd-Frank], but he also bashes Wall Street,” says Singer in the interview. “He’s throwing them a bone, but bashing them with a stick when they go after it.”
While Singer doesn’t expect the challenges banks are facing to lighten up, he doesn’t think they’ll get much worse, explaining that party platforms usually supersede any candidates’ promises. Having said that, he views Trump as a wild card given his populist stance.
“Our advice is plan for uncertainty, not an outcome,” Singer told Forbes.com. “Don’t take risks you don’t understand or don’t feel compensated for.”