Regulatory relief

Recent regulatory reform activity is a step in the right direction, but the changes envisioned in both a Treasury Department report and a suite of House bills are a mixed bag.

The president of the St. Louis Fed said that regulators should go back to the pre-Dodd Frank framework for small banks, while warning about changes to the system as fintechs expand their presence.

The current regulatory focus drives the growth of ever-larger, harder-to-manage and harder-to-regulate megabanks, while community banks have been left to be picked up by acquirers.

Senate lawmakers will soon introduce a bill that could more than quadruple the current $50 billion threshold to be considered a systemically important bank, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said Monday.

Credit union trade associations commended the committee’s work that was the result of a two-day mark-up

The bills were individual pieces of the larger Financial Choice Act, including measures to raise the systemic threshold for banks and raise the threshold for banks subject to CFPB supervision.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created in part to ensure that nonbanks are subject to federal oversight, but the fact is that 99% of banks are exempt from CFPB supervision.

Cynthia Blankenship, an executive at Bank of the West in Grapevine, Texas, has been a regular in Washington for years fighting for regulatory changes. She is encouraging other bankers to do likewise.

Under the bill, regional banks may eventually be able to shed the systemically important financial institution designation that subjects those with more than $50 billion in assets to tougher regulatory requirements.

Janet Garufis has spent of the past year working to ease the regulatory burden on community banks.

Lawmakers like Sen. Tim Scott may feel differently about some elements in a Senate regulatory relief bill depending on whether CFPB Director Cordray is remaining in office until his term expires in July.

The democratic nominee has supported regulatory relief and small business lending for CUs

The Trump administration is prepping recommendations to address shortcomings in the capital markets in a report to be released next month, a top Treasury Department official said Monday.

Department of Defense urged to exempt credit unions from July 2015 MLA amendments.

The need to raise the U.S. debt limit, pass a budget, provide relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey and enact flood insurance and tax reform will dominate the remaining legislative calendar this fall.

Amendments mean parity with federal law, other changes allowing efficient CU operations.

Lenders will not have to report data on open-ended home equity lines of credit in 2018 or 2019 if they originated fewer than 500 HELOCs the preceding year, the bureau said.

The idea that the trading ban burdens community banks and prevents them from investing in fintech opportunities is misleading.

As the Federal Reserve retools its supervisory approach to bank boards, some critics fear the changes may go too far.

The National Credit Union Administration has laid out a detailed and comprehensive reform plan, with proposals ranging from minor procedural changes to more ambitious goals, like a firmer assertion of federal preemption over state laws.