Sanders (I-Vt.)  last week unveiled new legislation designed to break up the nation’s largest banks, declaring that “if an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.” 

Though it stands virtually no chance of passage in the GOP-controlled Congress, the bill has industry leaders fretting. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“The prospects of it becoming law are nil,” said one banking lobbyist, who described Sanders’s legislations as “shrill, bombastic and misaligned.” 

“But we care about whether this impacts Hillary and whether she’ll try to pander to the far left.” 

Business and banking groups, and their lobbying forces on K Street, are quickly lining up against the legislation. 

“Misses the mark,” said Tom Quaadman, vice president of the U.S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. 

“I fully expect Senator Sanders’s third attempt to break up banks to have the same impact as the previous two: zero,” echoed Tony Fratto, a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, which does communications work with big banks. 

Despite the vocal opposition from the business community, Sanders’s ability to activate progressive outside groups could mean he may be able to move Clinton to the left — even if, as conventional wisdom says, he poses no real threat to the former secretary of State’s eventual nomination. 

Sanders’s rhetoric signals that, seven years after the 2008 economic collapse, progressives still see tapping into anger about the taxpayer bailouts to big banks as a winning political strategy. 

“When it comes down to it — he’s doing this not just because he’s trying to demonize the industry but this populist stuff is popular with his base,” a second banking lobbyist said. 

Clinton is under pressure from Sanders, Warren and other liberals to take a harder line on financial issues as she looks to rally Democrats behind her campaign.  But at the same time, too forceful a stance could cause her a headache in the general election. 

In other areas — such as immigration, gay marriage and campaign finance —Clinton has taken liberal positions on issues since launching her campaign. 

But she has yet to release any specific type of economic policy agenda, something that she is certain to be asked about in the coming months.