ABA Analyzes What Midterm Elections Mean for Bankers
ABA’s government relations team has prepared an analysis of how the Republican victory in Tuesday’s election will affect the banking industry. The analysis, which is available on aba.com, reviews the likely impact on such key issues as Dodd-Frank regulatory fixes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, overall regulatory burden, data security, GSE reform and tax reform.
There is cautious optimism about the potential for tweaks to Dodd-Frank and more oversight of financial regulators, the analysis indicates. "Congress can play a critical role ... in terms of both legislation and aggressive oversight of regulatory actions," the analysis found. "The U.S. Senate under current Democratic leadership has been reluctant to take on that role. We anticipate that the incoming leadership will be more active in their oversight responsibilities and will originate and consider some regulatory relief bills in the 114th Congress. Read the analysis.
The election represented the fruit of ABA's electoral engagement efforts. Through BankPac, bankers supported more than 480 candidates with the $3.2 million -- 90 percent of that raised through state bankers associations -- they raised for the 2014 election cycle. Meanwhile, ABA's 501(c)(4), the Financial Education and Advocacy Initiative, was successful in all five of the races where it supported get-out-the-vote efforts: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa and Kentucky.
To learn how the new Congress' actions and the remaining two years of the Obama administration will influence banking's future, ABA strongly encourages bankers to plan to attend the 2015 ABA Government Relations Summit, to be held March 23-25 in Washington, D.C. The conference offers bankers the opportunity to hear detailed briefings from Washington insiders and express their views to policymakers on key issues. Registration is free. Learn more and register now.
Former ABA Chairman Wins Nebraska Legislative Seat
In related news, a former ABA chairman was elected to the Nebraska Legislature. With approximately 78 percent of the vote, Matt Williams -- chairman and president of Gothenburg State Bank, Gothenburg, Neb. -- will represent Nebraska's 36th district in the nonpartisan, unicameral state legislature. Williams chaired ABA from 2012 to 2013.
Agencies to Host Regulatory Review Outreach Meetings
The Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC yesterday announced the first in a series of outreach meetings on their decennial review of unnecessary, outdated or burdensome regulation. They began the second review cycle under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act earlier this year.
The first meeting will take place in Los Angeles on Dec. 2. Other meetings -- tentatively slated for Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C. -- will take place in 2015, the agencies said. Attendees are invited to share their views on any of the topics encompassed by the EGRPRA review -- which do not include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Dodd-Frank Act or Basel III.
Fed Announces 2015 Fee Schedules
The Federal Reserve System’s 2015 fee schedules for priced services that go into effect Jan. 2 are expected to be approximately 1 percent higher than in 2014, and the agency expects to make a 1.9 percent profit, the Fed said Tuesday.
The average fee paid to collect checks using the reserve banks’ Check 21 services is expected to decline 3 percent, the Federal Reserve Board said, and fees on FedACH services will decline by 1 percent.
Meanwhile, fees for Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services will increase 5 percent and Fedwire Securities Service fees will rise by approximately 15 percent. FedLine access fees will also see a modest increase. View the fee schedules.
Agencies Release Preliminary Observations of Cyber Assessment
The financial regulators on Monday released the initial results of their cybersecurity assessment of 500 banks and credit unions with less than $1 billion in assets. The assessment began in June and will not affect ratings at the participating institutions, the agencies said.
The assessment “reinforces the need for engagement by the board of directors and senior management” on several issues, the agencies said, including understanding their institutions’ risks and monitoring potential threats, establishing a “dynamic control environment,” effectively overseeing third-party relationships and developing and testing plans for business recovery and continuity after a cyber attack.
The agencies also urged all financial institutions to join the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a centralized resource for sharing and disseminating information about cyber threats and responses. Read more.
HMDA Data Shows CUs Fail at Low-Income Lending
The latest Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data show that credit unions across the country are failing in their mission to serve homebuyers of modest means, ABA said Monday. In a series of state-by-state reports, ABA showed that home loans for low-income borrowers represented only a tiny fraction of credit union mortgage lending.
The low-income mortgage share ranged from a low of 0.35 percent in Maine to a high of just 3.99 percent in Pennsylvania. In two states -- South Dakota and Wyoming -- not a single HMDA-reporting credit union made home loans to a low-income borrower. By contrast, upper-income borrowers accounted for a large share of credit union mortgage lending, including 25 percent in Maine and 31 percent in Pennsylvania.
ABA offers its members customized reports for each state that they can use to show policymakers how credit unions have misused their privileged tax treatment. Users can click on “Who Receives CU Mortgage Loans” under each state name. View the state-by-state reports.
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