Letter to the Editor: State Mutual Thrift Charters Doing the Job

To the Editor:

In the article regarding the fading of arguments for preserving the federal thrift charter ("Arguments for Keeping Thrifts May Be Fading," July 7), it is asserted that a new (federal) charter would need to be created for the 247 federally chartered thrifts that are in mutual form. This overlooks the continued availability of the state mutual thrift charter, which has a proud history extending back to before private federal banking charters were even envisioned.

The simple fact is, most healthy mutual thrifts today have state charters, which have served mutual thrifts perfectly well for over 100 years.

Apart from preserving an opportunity for regulatory arbitrage, there is indeed very little reason to preserve the federal thrift charter.Kevin Handly
Partner
Pierce Atwood LLP
Boston

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