Clinton Campaign Proposes Reg Relief for Community Banks and CUs

Hillary Clinton's campaign released a list of proposals to reduce the regulatory burden on community banks and credit unions.

Her proposal would exempt community banks and credit unions from regulatory creep. The proposal notes that many regulations, which are intended for larger institutions, end up being applied to community banks and credit unions. Her proposal would ensure that credit unions and community banks are only subject to rules that makes sense for their size and mission.

She proposes to eliminate duplicative examinations for community banks and credit unions. This would include better coordination of examinations between state and federal regulators. Also, she supports greater examination schedule flexibility for healthy credit unions.

Her proposal would expand the safe harbor protections for mortgages made by community banks and credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets, as long as the mortgages have appropriate documentation, do not have excessive fees or interest rates, and are held on the books of community banks and credit unions.

The proposal would streamline the reporting requirement for banks with under $1 billion in assets. I suspect this would be extended to smaller credit unions.

Furthermore, she will designate senior officials at the Department of Treasury to work closely with community banks and credit unions to ensure that economic policy and financial regulations are helping them to succeed and grow.

Read her proposal.