Newsroom

House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus is looking for a response by Oct. 1 from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on efforts to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on credit unions and community banks – action that NAFCU would welcome.

"America's small community banks and credit unions are over-burdened and need relief," Bachus and 33 other panel Republicans said in a Sept. 8 letter to Geithner. "The [Financial Services Oversight Council], which you chair, needs to conduct a thorough analysis of the current regulatory structure; eliminate outdated or duplicative regulations; and perform a rigorous cost-benefit analysis on every new regulation before they are finalized."

Bachus noted the request in his remarks last week to NAFCU's Congressional Caucus, held in Washington, noting that the first 102 rules promulgated under Dodd-Frank have cost 10.8 man hours a year.

NAFCU has been pressing for just such streamlining and simplification in an effort to ease credit unions' regulatory compliance burdens, particularly in today's troubled economic environment.

In the Sept. 8 letter, Bachus other panel Republicans said the review they seek mirrors a Dodd-Frank Act requirement for the FSOC. They also said it is needed for Geithner to fulfill a pledge he made shortly after the law's enactment that the administration "will not simply layer new rules on top of old, outdated ones. . . . Wherever possible, we will streamline and simplify."

The letter commended Geithner's message but said they have seen "no evidence" in the year since Dodd-Frank was enacted of any efforts to streamline and simplify regulations.

"Representatives of small community banks and credit unions and mid-sized regional institutions have testified repeatedly before the Financial Services Committee that the layering of new regulatory mandates on top of existing rules is endangering their very survival, and impeding their ability to meet the credit needs of their communities, including the small businesses that create the majority of jobs in America," it states.