The federal banking agencies today released a 440-page report to Congress that highlights some of the significant regulatory burdens facing America’s banking industry. This report concludes the agencies’ decennial review of regulations that began in June 2014 and is required by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act.
“We appreciate regulators’ extensive consultation with the banking industry to better understand the specific regulatory burdens that make it harder for banks to serve their customers and communities,” said American Bankers Association EVP Wayne Abernathy. “We’re eager to extend the good work of the EGRPRA process into this more detailed and comprehensive review as regulators work with Treasury to identify additional areas for improvement and take action to make those changes a reality.”
ABA submitted extensive feedback to the federal banking agencies throughout the EGRPRA review. Among other things, ABA asked the agencies to streamline the Call Report, provide relief to highly capitalized banks, modernize the Community Reinvestment Act, reduce BSA/AML burden, increase the Federal Reserve’s threshold for small bank holding company relief, provide additional flood insurance guidance and update the OCC’s Part 9 fiduciary regulations.
Multiple ABA recommendations have already been acted upon, including on the Call Report, small bank holding companies and Part 9. Other recommendations have not been acted upon, though ABA will continue to press the agencies to provide this relief. The EGRPRA final report also offers a roadmap for actions the regulators will take soon to address certain regulatory burdens, such as proposals to simplify capital rules for community banks and increase the threshold requiring an appraisal for commercial real estate loans from $250,000 to $400,000. For more information, contact ABA’s Shaun Kern.
