Tag Archives: Community Banks

The Great Recession, although now fading into history, was certainly devastating to financial markets in general and banking institutions specifically. However, the strategic response to the crisis by financial institutions, coupled with legislative initiatives that drastically altered the regulatory landscape, ...

When it comes to regulatory reform, smaller community banks should be a prime concern, according to Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith A. Noreika. Noreika said as much in his address of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Thursday. He also laid out several steps lawmakers can take to lower barriers of entry and expand opportunities for community banks across the country.

The Dallas Fed report concluded that many community financial institutions may be “too small to succeed” in the era of the “regulatory onslaught” brought on by Dodd-Frank.

While Curry said these legislative proposals are meaningful steps taken toward achieving relief from regulatory burden for community banks, he admitted there are other ways to make smaller institutions financially viable.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has advanced three specific legislative proposals aimed at eliminating regulatory burden on community banks and financial institutions, according to an address from Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry at the Interagency Outreach Meeting on The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPA) in Chicago this week.

While these changes are a step in the right direction Bullard did note, "more could be done. There appears to be some areas where we have sufficient information and experience to warrant additional action."

The objectives of the initiative to reduce the regulatory burden on community banks are consistent with the feedback the FFIEC has received as part of the regulatory review conducted under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGPRA) of 1996, according to the FFIEC.

U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) and Angus King (I-Maine) have introduced a bill that would give community banks, small businesses, and credit unions a say in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)'s rulemaking process.

With many smaller banks either failing or struggling to continue operations due to increased costs of doing business, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry recently spoke at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago about some of the latest innovations brought about to help community banks get back in the lending game.

“The CFPB continues to issue new regulations designed for massive, ‘systemic-risk’ financial institutions without considering how those same rules harm small businesses, community banks, and credit unions,” Pittenger said last month after H.R. 1195 passed in the House.