July 13, 2012 – NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker, in Thursday’s American Banker “BankThink” column, continued the drumbeat on the need to ensure coordinated rulemaking by Financial Stability Oversight Council member agencies.
“Dodd-Frank created a host of new regulatory obligations (approximately 400 new rules) that the National Credit Union Administration, the banking regulators and other financial regulatory agencies are expected to promulgate,” the NAFCU president wrote. “And, there is little, if any, coordination between any of these agencies as they move forward with their individual rulemaking.”
Becker late last month urged Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, as chairman of the FSOC, to facilitate regulatory coordination among the agencies that oversee the nation’s depository institutions. The council includes the top officials of NCUA, FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
His concerns were echoed Tuesday by Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, during a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing. Chabot said regulators, including those represented on the FSOC, “have a responsibility to share information and coordinate with each other in an effort to make the post-Dodd-Frank environment as manageable as possible for those institutions serving Main Street.”
NAFCU supports the existing regulatory structure, with NCUA operating as an independent regulator, but Becker notes the FSOC is obligated under the law to facilitate regulatory coordination.
“When smaller financial institutions, such as credit unions, are inundated with regulations from multiple agencies simultaneously, their ability to meet the needs of their members is severely hampered and their services are unduly curtailed,” he wrote. “Without a coordinated approach to financial regulation, credit unions cannot continue to fulfill their mission of serving their members and strengthening our nation’s economy.”