In a divided Washington, where few issues generate bipartisan support, relief from financial regulations for smaller banks seems to be a singular exception.

As President Trump, Republican members of Congress, and bank lobbyists look to overhaul banking rules put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, some regulatory advocates agree that targeted changes for smaller institutions are needed.

Even Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts representative who helped write the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, has argued that the entire law shouldn’t be scrapped but some portions should be tweaked. Among them: increasing the threshold for when a bank is considered too big to fail from $50 billion in assets to something larger.

In her semi-annual report to Congress last week, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen put up a vigilant defense of Dodd-Frank, while acknowledging there was room for change. In particular, Yellen cited the need to reduce compliance costs for community banks and said Congress should exempt small institutions from restrictions on banks making risky trades with shareholder money, a practice most don’t engage in.

As the financial crisis recedes and Trump and a Republican Congress take charge, banks are more confident than ever that some of the regulations they have chafed under are likely to be eased.

“The feeling is maybe it’s OK now to make some amendments to Dodd-Frank,’’ said Wayne Abernathy, executive vice president for the American Bankers Association, a Washington-based trade group.

In particular, smaller banks want regulators to ease the rules and paperwork required to ensure that borrowers can repay their mortgages, Abernathy said.

Unlike larger banks that sell their loans to investors, many community banks keep home loans on their books, so they’re already wary of making risky mortgages, he said.

Community lenders are also more likely to know their customers and should be able to develop loans to suit their needs, Abernathy said. “The regulators have been playing to standardization and that favors larger banks,’’ he said.

Even regional banks, such as Providence-based Citizens Financial Group and Santander Holdings USA, based in Boston, are arguing that they’ve been unfairly caught up in a regulatory sweep that was aimed at reining in the largest and riskiest of the financial institutions.

The CEOs of Santander and Citizens have joined a coalition of 18 midsize banks that’s urging Congress to carve out exemptions to Dodd-Frank.

“Our institutions have relatively uncomplicated organizational structures and limited trading, derivatives, and foreign operations,’’ the coalition wrote to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders last week. “None of our institutions presents the sorts of systemic risk that have rightfully been a key focus of policy makers after the financial crisis.’’

Still, some consumer watchdog groups warn that smaller banks are being used as cover for the financial industry to push through much broader changes that will undo much of Dodd-Frank.

“Community banks are the Trojan horse,’’ said Dennis Kelleher, chief executive of Better Markets, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington. “This is all about deregulating the biggest banks in the country, while claiming to be helping little banks.’’

Regulators have been willing to ease requirements for smaller institutions in recent years, Kelleher said.

Community banks, which mostly provide traditional loans and take in deposits in small geographic areas, already don’t have to submit as many regulatory reports to federal agencies, Kelleher said.

And last year, the Federal Reserve eased up on the tests that regional banks have to pass in order to show they could withstand a significant economic shock without a government bailout.

Despite complaints that Dodd-Frank regulations have limited lending and hurt banks, many financial institutions continue to perform well, consumer groups argue.

The number of banks that lost money in the third quarter of 2016 was the fewest since 1997. Overall, bank profits were up 13 percent from the year before, and annual loan growth is back to about 2007 levels, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Community banks’ loan growth and revenue outpaced the industry’s as a whole in the third quarter of 2016, according to the FDIC.

Still, multiple efforts are underway to unwind Dodd-Frank and other financial regulations. This month, Trump signed an executive order telling the Treasury Department to recommend changes to financial regulations by late spring. Texas Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is also drafting a proposal that would significantly scale back Dodd-Frank and some of its consumer protections.

Abernathy, of the bankers group, said any changes are likely to take time and may be small. “A lot of this stuff is going to be incremental,’’ he said.

Bob Rivers, chairman of Eastern Bank, the largest community bank in Massachusetts, said he isn’t expecting huge changes that could affect the bank’s planning or finances.

Rivers said he would welcome an easing of the mortgage rules and a change in the so-called Durbin Amendment, which caps fee income when a bank’s debit cards are used at retailers.

“We haven’t budgeted for any relief,’’ Rivers said. “We’re not counting on it.’’

Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.