|
NEWS RELEASE
Sept. 23, 2009
ABA Media Contact: John Hall
(202) 663-5473
E-mail: jhall@aba.com
ABA STATEMENT REGARDING NEW OUTLINE FOR CFPA LEGISLATION
by Edward L. Yingling, ABA president and CEO
“In our July 15 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, the ABA raised a number of critical policy issues in the administration’s proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and vest it with broad new powers. Chairman Frank has now released a summary of a revised discussion draft of the CFPA bill. Though we have yet to see the actual text of the legislation, we are pleased to note that, based on the summary, the revised bill appears to address a number of the issues ABA had raised:
-
it removes the requirement that banks offer government designed “plain vanilla” products;
-
it removes the unworkable requirement that communications with consumers be “reasonable”;
-
it requires coordinated exams of banks by the CFPA and safety and soundness regulators;
-
it provides a stronger dispute resolution mechanism when a bank is caught in a dispute between the two regulators;
-
it provides a more explicit and stronger mandate to focus on the non-banks that were the primary cause of the financial crisis;
-
it provides a more fair funding structure for the CFPA; and
-
the structure of the CFPA is modified to provide stronger input from the bank regulators.
“These are significant improvements in areas that the ABA had specifically raised in its testimony, and we appreciate Chairman Frank’s proposed modifications. The ABA still has major concerns in the following principal areas:
-
the bill still removes preemption of state and local laws; without preemption, we will have a patchwork of laws that will result in increased costs and less credit availability;
-
the bill still creates a new agency that, while improved in design, will conflict with the safety and soundness regulators;
-
the agency still has extensive new powers to “legislate” its own rules, rather than applying the existing rules created by Congress.
“Recent problems have demonstrated that changes are needed to protect consumers. ABA looks forward to working with the Congress to improve consumer protections, while avoiding undermining the availability of credit or imposing conflicting and costly regulations.”
The American Bankers Association brings together banks of all sizes and charters into one association. ABA works to enhance the competitiveness of the nation's banking industry and strengthen America’s economy and communities. Its members – the majority of which are banks with less than $125 million in assets – represent over 95 percent of the industry’s $13.5 trillion in assets and employ over 2 million men and women.
# # #
| 
