United States: Banking Committee Advances "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief And Consumer Protection Act"

On December 5, 2017, the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs announced the advancement of S. 2155, the "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act." This legislation was supported by 16 of the Banking Committee's 23 members, and is intended to ease regulation on credit unions and smaller banks. On the same day, Vice Chairman of the FDIC Thomas Hoenig released a statement in support of the legislation, noting its goal is supporting economic growth, while easing the regulatory burden on smaller, less risky, financial institutions. Vice Chair Hoenig highlighted and supported the proposed legislation's blanket exemption from Volcker Rule compliance for banks that are below certain thresholds, but was cautious regarding the provision of the legislation that excludes central bank reserves from the calculation of the supplemental leverage ratio for custodial banks. Newly appointed Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting also released remarks in support of the proposed legislation, noting the positive effect that it will have on smaller financial institutions. Comptroller Otting especially noted the Volcker Rule exemption, simplified capital rules for highly capitalized community banks, and a higher threshold for designating an institution as systemically important. On December 4, 2017, Senator Sherrod Brown delivered remarks critical of certain provisions of the proposed legislation, noting especially the provisions that Senator Brown contend weaken the stress testing and living will safeguards enacted as a result of Dodd-Frank. Senator Brown also discussed how the proposed legislation may lead to some of the same risky home lending practices that exacerbated the financial crisis. The Senate Banking Committee press release is available at: https://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republican-press-releases?ID=DD186539-D903-4AFF-8D1F-2CAFB32F88AE  , a transcript of Senator Brown's remarks is available at:

https://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democratic-press-releases?ID=4983C247-A873-4992-8F88-B98C20FE0233 , a transcript of Vice Chairman Hoenig's remarks is available at:

https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/speeches/spdec0517.html  and the transcript of Comptroller Otting's remarks is

available at: https://www.occ.treas.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2017/nr-occ-2017-145.html .

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