While federal law requires banking agencies to review their regulations every decade to identify and address unnecessary burdens, the agencies lack documented procedures to fulfill that obligation or determine its effectiveness, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a new report.
The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act, or EGRPRA, requires the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council and bank regulators to review their regulations every 10 years to identify any unnecessary regulatory requirements for supervised institutions. The most recent round of reviews kicked off in 2024.
The GAO examined the processes the agencies have in place for their EGRPRA reviews. It determined that outcomes were often difficult to identify, and their connection to subsequent regulatory actions was unclear.
One issue was that the agencies had no documented procedures for identifying outdated or unnecessary regulations or determining whether the issues discovered warrant action, according to the GAO. Another was that they have not incorporated practices related to prioritizing which rules to analyze, conducting cost-benefit analysis, and assessing the combined burden of multiple regulations.
“As a result, [the agencies] may not consistently focus on the most significant issues, assess regulatory impacts and trade-offs, or understand how multiple regulations collectively affect regulated entities,” it said.
GAO made six recommendations for how agencies could improve their EGRPRA reviews. The agencies neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendations.
