SpiritBank CEO Testifies on Behalf of the Banking Industry before the Senate Banking Committee
WASHINGTON – The American Bankers Association testified Tuesday on the need to strengthen accountability at the government created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by creating a board or commission structure to address the agency director’s unchecked authority to impose new rules.
Albert C. Kelly, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of SpiritBank in Bristow, Okla., testified on behalf of ABA before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Kelly is also ABA’s chairman-elect.
“ABA supports the creation of a board or commission that would be responsible for the Bureau’s actions rather than giving the head of the Bureau sole authority to make decisions that could fundamentally alter the financial choices available for customers,” Kelly said. “It also provides the needed balance and appropriate checks in the exercise of the Bureau’s significant authority. We urge the Congress to pass statutory provisions that ensure such accountability before the Bureau is established with a single director.”
Kelly also called for the board or commission to include members with consumer finance business experience and direct safety and soundness regulatory expertise.
“Such expertise provides an important and necessary perspective as standards are set and enforcement activities undertaken,” Kelly said. “It will also improve accountability and help redress the separation between consumer protection and sound financial management.”
In his testimony, Kelly conveyed the industry’s support for changing the voting standard for the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s review of rule-making to a simple majority rather than a two-thirds vote and urged Congress to recalibrate the review standard by which the FSOC may act in setting aside a Bureau rule so action may take place on less than system-wide impacts or risks.
“If a majority of the nation’s top regulators believe a Bureau rule will have an adverse impact on the banking system, the rule should not go forward,” Kelly said. “Moreover, ABA also believes that a finding of ‘systemic risk’ is too narrow a review standard. For example, Bureau actions that end up driving some community banks out of business would not rise to the level of systemic risk, but would have enormous implications for the communities they serve.”
For a copy of Kelly’s full testimony, please click here.
About American Bankers Association
The American Bankers Association represents banks of all sizes and charters and is the voice for the nation’s $13 trillion banking industry and its two million employees. The majority of ABA’s members are banks with less than $165 million in assets. Learn more at http://www.spiritbank.com/leavepage.html?url=http://www.aba.com.
About SpiritBank
SpiritBank, a community bank based in Bristow, Okla., has branches statewide. The bank, founded in 1916, has assets exceeding $1 billion and more than 350 employees. For more information, visit www.SpiritBank.com .