*

Bankers bullish on deals, expect friendly regulators

*

Trump's populist leanings could affect banking policies

*

Crypto focus may increase competition for banks

By Pete Schroeder and Lananh Nguyen

NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - As Wall Street financiers

gathered in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, their optimism

about President-elect Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda was

tempered by uncertainty over his personnel and policies.

Bankers were still bullish on deals. They expected friendly

regulators to be installed atop key agencies, sweeping away

onerous regulations. Yet one week after Trump's election

victory, industry experts shifted their focus to Trump's

financial policies and how they would play out.

"Banks can't have everything," Erika Najarian, an analyst at

UBS, told the industry conference on Tuesday. While they are

benefiting from "wide open" capital markets, "we have to sort of

temper enthusiasm when it comes to loan growth for next year" if

interest rates stay higher for longer.

Attendees also speculated about Trump's potential roster of

financial regulators and predicted which companies stood to gain

most from the new regime.

"The administration is going to be this interesting mix of

kind of laissez-faire, plus pro-business, plus populism," said

Jon Lieber, Eurasia Group's head of research for the U.S. "How

those three things interact are going to be happening in weird

ways."

For instance, Trump is expected to scrap a proposal for

higher capital requirements that was strongly opposed by banking

giants. And attendees argued banks are well-positioned to push

for further relief and rollbacks of Democratic priorities as

economic growth remains a top Trump pledge.

"Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose, but the

CEOs frankly have to have the backbone to fight the regulators

when they think they are right," said Jelena McWilliams, the

former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in

Trump's first term.

But the incoming president's populist leanings could see him

do things like extend a Biden-era fight against banks' so-called

"junk fees" that are unpopular among consumers. While they did

not expect it to become reality, several attendees noted Trump's

campaign promise to cap credit card interest rates as the type

of populist pitch he is capable of making.

Meanwhile, banks that are already in the regulatory penalty

box are unlikely to be given easier treatment by the new

administration, attendees said, and intense scrutiny of lenders'

efforts to prevent money laundering and criminal financing will

also remain high as geopolitical tensions escalate between the

U.S. and its adversaries.

Trump's focus on crypto could also increase competition for

banks, said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow in economic studies at

the Brookings Institution.

While lenders may get a short-term boost in profits from

lighter regulation, their business could be eroded in the long

term if financial activity migrates to more lightly-regulated

areas such as the fintech or crypto industries, Klein said.

Bitcoin climbed to a record $89,982 on Tuesday on

expectations that Trump will embrace crypto.

"The incoming administration has an opportunity to deliver

on campaign promises," said Dante Disparte, the chief strategy

officer and head of global policy at Circle, the principal

operator of stablecoin USDC.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder and Lananh Nguyen in New York;

additional reporting byTatiana Bautzer and Nupur Anand

Editing by Nick Zieminski

)