The Treasury "Blueprint"; NAFCU Regulatory Compliance Newsletter Available
By now you likely have heard about the Treasury Blueprint. Rather than go into all the details here, I suggest you read this NAFCU Today article. The article also has a link to a very lengthy executive summary of the blueprint proposal. Here's a link to a Treasury announcement which contains links to the blueprint itself, a chart about the proposal, and a speech delivered by Treasury Secretary Paulson.
In short, Treasury is throwing around many ideas within the blueprint. One of which is the long-term proposal of reorganizing how financial institutions are regulated. One of the proposals would consolidate federal financial regulators (OCC, OTS, NCUA) into one.
While this is an issue worth following, I do not see it as a crisis. Treasury's blueprint is just that - a proposal. I see it as the beginning of a conversation. Their blueprint was met with opposition over the weekend from many parties. (Yesterday, we issued a statement challenging the blueprint for a number of reasons.)
With a new presidential administration around the corner, not to mention a new Congress, I do not see the proposal as a slam dunk. More of a half-court behind the back shot that could take a decade to complete, assuming it gains the political support, momentum and importance to do so. (Just think about it. We are in one of the worst mortgage crises in our country's history. To date, Congress has not passed any comprehensive legislation to deal with the issue. That isn't a knock on Congress. Rather, it illustrates how difficult it is to pass legislation on any issue.)
That being said, stay tuned.
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The April 2008 NAFCU Regulatory Compliance Newsletter is available for NAFCU members.
As I wrote that, I was struck with this question. How did it become April already? Can anyone tell me that?