Overlapping state and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. inspections are keeping examiners in banks too long, according to FDIC surveys.
In responding to post-examination questionnaires during 1995, bankers called for more coordination between the FDIC and state regulators, said Carmen J. Sullivan, director of the agency's division of compliance and consumer affairs.
"Banks expressed a desire for more coordination between our safety-and- soundness exams and the state exams," Ms. Sullivan said in addressing the annual Independent Bankers Association of America convention here this week. While she added that her agency had done "a lot of work with the states to coordinate and share exam results," a number of bankers attending the convention disagreed.
"I just haven't seen that happen," said Henry Homsher, president of the $60 million-asset Frontier State Bank, Redondo Beach, Calif. "I get beat up every year for two months with state and FDIC examiners who are doing the same thing. If I could get them to work together, life would be easier."
Another FDIC official speaking at the convention, director of supervision Nicholas J. Ketcha, said the agency is planning to alternate exams with state regulators to ease the burden on state nonmember banks.
"We're going to look at some sort of flip-flop arrangement in every state we can, and share information with state regulators wherever we can," Mr. Ketcha said.
FDIC spokesman Robert M. Garsson said the agency currently accepts exams from 37 state agencies. To qualify, a state banking commission must collect the same data FDIC examiners do.
"They don't have all the information that we're looking for," Mr. Garsson said of the 13 states that do not share exam duties with the FDIC.
The final results of the banker surveys, which were first returned by FDIC-inspected banks in June 1995, will be released within the next month, Mr. Ketcha said.
Respondents also said that FDIC examiners take too much time after compliance exams to report back to banks, Ms. Sullivan said. On average, it takes 45 days after an exam is concluded for an institution to receive its report. "That's far too long," Ms. Sullivan said.
She blamed the delays on short-staffing. The FDIC has 326 compliance examiners now, about 100 shy of its goal.
"We're continuing to use safety and soundness examiners, and, quite honestly, that can affect the quality and timeliness of the report, since they're not as experienced in the compliance area," Ms. Sullivan said.
