Examiners Only as Good as the Regulation Backing Them

It seems Ms. Rehm, in her column "Time for a Separate Regulatory Tier for Small Banks" [Jan. 26], is a true advocate for small community banks. But in all fairness, we can only beat up on the examiners so hard when we know they are required to construct bad regulations, resulting from bad law, resulting from bad political practices (such as the process that created Dodd-Frank), all the while considering earlier bad law and associated bad requlations.

Please visit with your small community bank compliance officers and ask how punitive present regulations now in force are negatively impacting the lending process in their banks. A good basic example would be to ask the how the recent regulatory requirements, and their convoluted related facets, constrict the process to originate a basic 1-4 family mortgage.

Then ask about the cost of compliance, associated with the punitive regulatory requirements, to avoid monetary penalties. And from the employees' perspective, ask about potential negative performance reviews for non-compliance with these onerous regulations.

All of this has only further stymied the lending process, which begs the bigger question: are the elected officials from the top down, who continue to advocate, promote and enact these bad laws, truly qualified to serve in their positions and appreciate the consequences of their actions?

George McCall
Vice Chairman and Senior Executive Vice President
First Sentinel Bank
Richlands, Va.