Senate Democrats are taking the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to task over efforts to preempt nationally chartered banks from state laws, just as Congress is completing work on a new fair credit law preempting banks and credit unions from state credit reporting laws.
In a letter sent last week, Senate Democrats called on the OCC to refrain from issuing a controversial rule preempting all nationally chartered banks from most state laws, particularly predatory lending and consumer protection statutes. Predatory lending laws were not covered in the fair credit reporting preemptions reauthorized by Congress last weekend.
The letter, signed by all 10 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, comes just days after NCUA issued a new legal opinion preempting Georgia's new predatory lending statute for federally chartered credit unions.
