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Magna Bank in Memphis, Tenn. has switched to a state charter, dumping the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in favor of a state regulator that management believes is more familiar with its local market.
July 19 -
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
Eastern Federal Bank of Norwich, Conn., has applied to the Connecticut Department of Banking to switch from a federal charter to a state charter.
The $163 million-asset mutual thrift had been regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision until that agency was merged into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. If its application is approved, the Federal Reserve Board would become Eastern's federal regulator, says Jerry Coia, Eastern's president and chief executive. The thrift would also change its name to Eastern Savings Bank.
"We had our OCC exam last year, and it was fair and reasonable, but our feeling is that the Department of Banking for Connecticut and the Fed are more community banking regulators than the OCC," Coia says.
Eastern must agree to an on-site examination from Fed regulators before it can submit its charter application to the Fed, Coia says. That exam will probably take place in October.
Eastern is one of only three mutual thrifts in Connecticut with a federal charter, along with Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan and Windsor Federal Savings and Loan. If its conversion is approved, Eastern would join 14 other mutual thrifts in Connecticut that have state charters.
A number of national banks and thrifts have switched to state charters to reduce examination costs and be closer to their primary regulators. Magna Bank, a $472 million-asset commercial bank in Memphis,
