Small Banks Shift Charters to Avoid U.S. as Regulator
An increasing number of the nation’s more than 600 savings and loan associations are fleeing the comptroller’s office as they navigate a shifting regulatory landscape. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law closed their longtime regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and moved them to the comptroller. A few of these institutions are trying to become credit unions, and many others are choosing state oversight. Nationally, 35 have applied to switch from national to state charters since July 2011.
While the banks say that they are looking for a regulatory agency that understands them, some former industry experts have expressed concern that the financial institutions are regulator shopping.
The Office of Thrift Supervision was a notoriously easy supervisor, said James Gilkeson, a former regulator at the comptroller’s office. “Going to state and credit union regulators is clearly a search for the next best thing,” he said.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/business/small-banks-shift-charters-to-avoid-us-as-regulator.html?pagewanted=all
