NEWS RELEASE
March 15, 2010
ABA Media Contact: Peter Garuccio    
(202) 663-5452
E-mail: pgarucci@aba.com

ABA REACTS TO SENATOR DODD’S FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM PROPOSAL

WASHINGTON – New financial regulatory reform legislation unveiled today by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) contains important provisions, particularly with respect to systemic risk oversight, a mechanism for resolving systemically important firms, and placing limits on the concept of too-big-to-fail.

“The ABA has strongly supported regulatory reform and continues to do so,” said Edward L. Yingling, ABA’s president and chief executive officer.  “However, we are very disappointed that the bipartisan process has broken down, at least for now, and we do not believe that workable regulatory reform can be enacted without a bipartisan approach.”

ABA opposes the new bill as it now stands and is suggesting a number of areas that need to be changed, including: the approach to consumer protection, which continues to separate prudential and consumer regulation; the elimination of the thrift charter; the elimination of the Federal Reserve’s authority over state member banks; issues within the resolution mechanism; the weakening of federal preemption; and the failure to address accounting issues in any fashion.

“We oppose this bill because it will subject traditional banks, which did not cause this crisis, to heavy new regulation, while non-banks will have even further competitive advantage,” said Yingling.  “The future of traditional banks will be unnecessarily put at risk and their ability to provide the credit our economy needs will be undermined.  Progress has been made, there is still an opportunity to achieve regulatory reform, and ABA will support the continuing efforts of Chairman Dodd and the rest of the Senate Banking Committee to reach agreement on a workable bill.”

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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 trillion in assets and employ over 2 million men and women.