January 21, 2016

Brown Commends Extension of Exam Cycles for Small Banks

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs – today commended federal regulators for taking swift action to reduce the regulatory burden for small banks.

The new rule allows well-managed banks with up to $1 billion in assets to qualify for an on-site exam cycle of 18 rather than 12 months. The previous threshold was $500 million. The provision was one of several bipartisan measures included in last year’s transportation law to provide targeted regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions

“Democrats and Republicans have long agreed that small, well-managed banks face exam cycles that are too short and too burdensome,” Brown said. “The regulators’ swift action today to implement the new law is the kind of meaningful relief small financial institutions in Ohio and nationwide need to be more efficient, cut some of their administrative costs, and still protect consumers.”

The transportation bill incorporated additional provisions that Brown and Banking Committee Democrats proposed last year (S. 1491) to streamline regulations for the nation’s smallest financial institutions and strengthen consumer protections, including proposals to:

  • Eliminate the requirement that financial institutions send annual privacy notices to their customers, if their privacy policy hasn't changed.
  • Allow privately insured credit unions to be eligible for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) system and receive FHLB funding.
  • Provide savings and loan holding companies the same increase in SEC registration and deregistration thresholds provided to bank holding companies in the JOBS Act.

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