In a recent interview with the newsletter Capitol Account, American Bankers Association Chair Julieann Thurlow spoke about the “tsunami” of regulation released by banking agencies over the past year, the potential effects of that regulation on the industry, and ABA’s advocacy and legal efforts in response to the flood of new and proposed rules.
“Think about all the operational challenges that come with introducing these new regulations—pivoting, changing your business model.… Then add no overdraft fees, no late charges, reducing the amount of revenue that we can make on our swipe accounts,” said Thurlow, who is president and CEO of Reading Cooperative Bank in Reading, Massachusetts. “All of a sudden, there’s not a business line that’s not been attacked—and is not less profitable as a byproduct of all these rules.”
One regulation highlighted in the interview was the CFPB rule to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires the collection and submission of data related to credit applications by women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses. ABA and the Texas Bankers Association are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to prevent the CFPB from implementing the rule. Thurlow noted that as the CFPB was drafting the rule, ABA and many banks attempted to provide feedback about how to improve it, but those comments seemingly were ignored.
“I participated in hearings with the CFPB, [reading] their 100-page PowerPoint beforehand, reviewing all of the questions for two days of testimony and then writing long letters identifying how much it was going to cost our bank,” Thurlow said. “But it really didn’t matter because the rule ended up coming out the same…. I can’t imagine what banker would give up five days of their life to participate in one of these events when it is just a farce.”
