The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) told Congress that the role of community banks in advancing and sustaining the economic recovery is jeopardized by stifling regulatory burden. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Robert Fisher, president and CEO of Tioga State Bank in Spencer, New York advocated key provisions of ICBA’s pro-growth Plan for Prosperity regulatory relief platform to expand credit availability and mitigate rapid consolidation in the banking industry.

“I’m a fifth-generation community banker who’s proud to carry on our commitment to local prosperity. Many of the communities we serve depend on us as the only financial institution with a local presence,” Fisher said. “Like thousands of other community banks across the country, Tioga State Bank provides services that cannot be duplicated by banks that operate from outside the community. We strongly encourage this committee to build on your strong record of regulatory relief by advancing legislation I will discuss today.”

To address community bank overregulation, Fisher outlined several recommendations included in ICBA’s Plan for Prosperity and advanced in pending legislation, including:

• expanding relief from Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting mandates,
• providing automatic “qualified mortgage” status for community bank portfolio loans,
• easing escrow and appraisal requirements for community bank portfolio lenders,
• addressing needed reciprocal deposit reform, and
• repealing onerous new small-business-loan data-collection requirements for small financial institutions.

Fisher noted ICBA’s support for bills to address community bank overregulation and promote access to capital. He encouraged the committee to take up and advance the CLEAR Relief Act (H.R. 2133), the Financial Institutions Due Process Act (H.R. 924), the Clarifying Commercial Real Estate Loans Act (H.R. 2148) and the Access to Affordable Mortgages Act.
About ICBA

The Independent Community Bankers of America®, the nation’s voice for more than 5,800 community banks of all sizes and charter types, is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education and high-quality products and services.