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Now that the Office of Thrift Supervision has been eliminated, First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Charleston, S.C., does not see much reason to retain its federal charter.
December 21 -
Tom Considine, who leads the New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance, has aggressively lobbied federally chartered thrifts, arguing that they're closer than federal regulators, less expensive and they won't dissolve.
July 15
MutualBank in Muncie, Ind., has received regulatory approval to convert from a federal savings bank to a state commercial bank.
David Heeter, the president and chief executive of the bank and its holding company, MutualFirst Financial Inc., said that the conversion would eliminate some restrictions on the bank's consumer and commercial lending and would reduce regulatory assessments.
"We are pleased to conform our financial institution charter to one that better reflects who we are, a community commercial bank serving the markets in which we have offices," Heeter said in a news release Thursday.
The Federal Reserve has approved MutualFirst's application to become a bank holding company while the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions gave the go ahead for the bank's conversion last week. The charter switch is expected to take effect Jan. 1. MutualBank has 32 branches throughout Indiana.
This is the second federally chartered bank to announce it was switching to a state charter this week. First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Charleston, S.C. said Wednesday that it had received approval from its state regulator to become a state commercial bank.
