WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee will hold a vote Wednesday on a bill that would provide regulatory relief for financial institutions that are not considered systemically important.
The Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk Act, or TAILOR Act, was introduced by Scott Tipton, R-Colo., in June and now has 59 co-sponsors, including two Democrats.
The bill would require federal bank and credit union regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to consider an institution's business model and potential unintended consequences when implementing new regulations. It would also require regulators to do a five-year look-back on past regulations and report annually to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee on steps that are being taken to "tailor" regulations.
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Determining regulatory requirements based on banks activities rather than their size would liberate old-school institutions from unnecessary burdens without endangering the financial system.
June 22 -
A day after Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray told financial industry executives that Congress did not intend to exempt small institutions from most rules, several lawmakers begged to differ.
February 24 -
WASHINGTON Democratic senators introduced a bill Thursday that would separate out medical debt from other types of consumer debt for credit reporting purposes.
February 25
"It is clear that legislation is needed to address the mounting burdens of regulation that, in the aggregate, have stifled the ability of our nation's financial institutions to serve the needs of consumers and small businesses, as well as local and regional economies," James Ballentine, an executive vice president at the American Bankers Association, wrote in a letter to committee members on Tuesday.
The Credit Union National Association also showed its support for the bill in a statement.
"This is an important piece of legislation because it continues this notion that we've been trying to push, that in coming out of the financial crisis you have consumer regulations that are certainly targeted toward abusers of consumers, but you also have prudential regulation that is designed to address 'too big to fail,'" said Ryan Donovan, CUNA's chief advocacy officer. "Credit unions aren't 'too big to fail,' and they shouldn't be subject to the same type of 'too big to fail' regulations that the largest banks are."
The vote is schedule for March 2 at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
