WASHINGTON - Vice President Gore's long-awaited "Reinventing Government" report does not advocate merging the bank regulatory agencies, but a senior administration officials promised an announcement on that subject soon.
"We'll have something to say about that later in the fall," said Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman in an interview on the White House South Lawn, following a ceremony during which the report was unveiled. "We are addressing it."
Industry figures have been interviewed extensively on the subject, and many had expected the report to call for a merger of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. Both are Treasury agencies.
Concerns on Bailout Costs
"I talked to them three times, and each discussion was related to OCC and OTS," said Kenneth A. Guenther, executive vice president of the Independent Bankers Association of America.
Mr. Guenther expressed concern that an agency merger could have the effect of saddling the banking industry with some responsibility for financing thrift bailout.
"I think that remains a concern for everyone," he said.
Mr. Guenther said the IBAA has not taken a position on whether two regulatory agencies should be merged. However, the IBAA has long supported the idea of moving the Comptroller's office out of the Treasury, he said.
"There is a politicization of bank regulation and supervision" with the agency residing within Treasury, Mr. Guenther said. "They are using bank regulation for social policy, and that is politicization.
At the Savings and Community Bankers of America, spokesman Robert Schmermund said the thrift trade group, would be supportive of a merger if it led to "uniform, rational, and reasonable regulatory policies."
Mr. Schmermund also expressed surprise that the two agencies were not dealt with in the report, noting that his organization had assembled a group of industry executives to brief the Gore task force on that subject.
The report's recommendations also called for new efforts on bank lending but provided few details about what action the Vice President anticipates.
"The federal government should examine the guidelines bank regulators set for small-business lending by financial institutions, to ensure that capital is available without undue barriers while maintaining the integrity of the financial institutions," said one of the recommendations.
More Due Next Week
A Treasury spokeswoman was unable to provide details, but said additional information should be available next week.
The only bank agency the report touched upon is the Resolution Trust Corp., which is scheduled to begin going out of business Sept. 30 and to finish operations on Dec. 31, 1996.
Under its recommendations, the Gore report urged action to "ensure the efficient merger" of the RTC into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The merger "should ensure the transfer of RTC expertise not currently held by the FDIC."
