The American Bankers Association today urged the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee to focus on expanding portfolio mortgage lending, modernizing rules on brokered deposits, enhancing bank innovation and providing relief from unnecessary stress tests — all of which would be bipartisan, common-sense policies to promote economic growth.
The letter came in response to a request from Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) for policy ideas that would stimulate economic growth and community development. ABA’s proposals included detailed information on the economic and consumer impacts and legislative language.
Specifically, ABA called for the committee to advance bipartisan legislation that would designate mortgage loans held in portfolio as Qualified Mortgages; update the FDIC’s treatment of brokered deposits to remove limits on the funding banks use to grow business and consumer lending; create a proactive, meaningful process of advance rulings from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on innovative products; require the CFPB and the Small Business Administration to study existing data sets before moving forward with a proposed data collection on small business lending; and remove stress testing requirements for midsize banks.
ABA also urged Crapo and Brown to take up priority legislation in ABA’s Blueprint for Growth, including bills that would tailor regulations and SIFI designations, provide an independent exam appeals process, end the Durbin Amendment’s price controls, provide charter flexibility for thrifts and count municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets, among others.
