04/24/2013

Back Up Capitol Hill Visits with Messages to Congress

ICBA NewsWatch Today 04/24/2013

Advocacy
ICBA Meets with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
ICBA leaders met with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday to discuss some of the community banking industry’s top policy priorities. The meeting at the Treasury Department in Washington focused on community banker concerns with new mortgage rules, excessive regulatory burdens, Basel III capital guidelines, too-big-to-fail and the low-interest-rate environment.

ICBA representatives noted that community banks play an important role in the mortgage market that should not be impinged by the glut of mortgage rules that regulators have issued so far this year. They also discussed the importance of direct and equal access to the secondary market and noted that Basel III was designed for the largest financial institutions, not community banks.

ICBA leadership community bankers Bill Loving, John Buhrmaster, Jack Hartings, Jack Hopkins and Greg Ohlendorf, ICBA President and CEO Cam Fine, and ICBA Senior Executive Vice President of Government Relations Karen Thomas represented the industry at the meeting.


Advocacy
Back Up Capitol Hill Visits with Messages to Congress
Nearly 1,000 members of the community banking industry are in the nation’s capital for the 2013 ICBA Washington Policy Summit, which runs through tomorrow. With community bankers on Capitol Hill for meetings with members of Congress, ICBA is calling on community bankers back home to engage their lawmakers via ICBA’s “Be Heard” grassroots website.

Community bankers can use custom resources on the site to express their support for ICBA’s Plan for Prosperity regulatory-relief agenda and to oppose power grab efforts by tax-subsidized credit unions. The site offers customizable emails to members of Congress and an interactive Twitter directory that community bankers can use to tweet their lawmakers with an up-to-date, pre-populated message.

Scheduled for today and tomorrow, the 2013 ICBA Washington Policy Summit will feature community banker meetings with members of Congress and federal financial regulators as well as remarks from top policymakers.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Senate Banking Committee member David Vitter (R-La.) are scheduled to address participants this morning, with Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) slated to speak tomorrow. Contact Congress Today!


Regulation
HUD Proposes Permanent Audit Exemption for Small Lenders
The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposed rule to make permanent an interim exemption regarding audit requirements for small lenders. ICBA has long advocated streamlined Federal Housing Administration financial statement reporting requirements for community banks.

Under the proposed rule, lenders and mortgagees that are supervised by federal banking agencies and that have $500 million or less in consolidated assets would not have to submit annual audited financial statements as a condition of FHA lender approval and recertification.

Instead, these institutions would be required to submit the unaudited financial regulatory reports that align with their fiscal year ends and are required to be submitted to their supervising federal banking agencies. HUD could require these institutions to submit audited financial statements if they pose a heightened risk to the FHA insurance fund.

ICBA strongly opposed the reporting requirements since they were announced and worked with policymakers to overturn the requirements. The association repeatedly told policymakers the proposal would result in new costs and regulatory burdens that would drive many community banks from the program.

Comments on the proposed rule are due June 17.


Go Local
ICBA and Farmers Market Coalition Join Forces
ICBA and the Farmers Market Coalition announced that they are joining forces for ICBA Community Banking Month and for the opening of farmers markets across the country. In a national news release that community bankers can customize for their communities, the organizations noted that their goal is to help educate consumers on the benefits of banking, shopping and dining locally.

This spring and summer, ICBA and FMC will spotlight successful partnerships between community banks and farmers markets across the country. The success stories will highlight these mutually beneficial relationships, while educating the broader consumer base on the benefits of banking, shopping and dining locally. Read ICBA Release. Access Local Release.


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Advocacy
ICBA, Coalition Seek Reforms to Remittance-Reporting Proposal
ICBA and a coalition of other financial trade groups recommended changes to a proposed call report item designed to gauge the impact of new rules on the remittance transfer market. The item would capture information about an institution’s remittance transfer activities, including whether the institution falls under the safe harbor for certain entities.

In a joint letter to the Federal Reserve, the organizations asked that remittance transfer reporting be conducted through an annual or semi-annual survey of all bank and nonbank remittance transfer providers instead of through the call report. They also asked that institutions only be required to report remittance transfers for which they are the providers and that regulators exclude institutions serving as intermediaries. Finally, the groups requested an extension of the proposed June 30 effective date and additional clarifications.

The agencies proposed introducing the new reporting requirement with the June 30 call report but have noted that a delay might be appropriate.


Advocacy
ICBA, Coalition Backs CDFI Program Funding
ICBA and a coalition of other financial trade groups urged congressional budget leaders to support fiscal 2014 funding for Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund at the $225 million requested in President Barack Obama’s budget. The associations also said they are disappointed to see that the president’s budget significantly cut from $18 million to $10 million the allocation to the Bank Enterprise Award Program and urged appropriators to restore funding to the program.

In a joint letter, the organizations noted that the BEA program is the only one of the CDFI Fund’s programs that the CDFI bank sector has been able to access on a significant and regular basis. The program is important to CDFI banks and the communities they serve in channeling resources to the most underserved people and places, they wrote.


Congress
Baucus Announces Retirement from Senate
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced he will not seek reelection in 2014. Baucus is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. He said that he wants to focus the next year and a half serving Montana unconstrained by the demands of a campaign.


Economy
New-Home Sales Up 1.5 Percent in March
New-home sales rose 1.5 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 and were up 18.5 percent from a year ago, the Commerce Department reported. The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2013 was $247,000, and the average sales price was $279,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 153,000, a 4.4-month supply at the current sales rate.


Economy
Home Prices Up 0.7 Percent: FHFA Index
U.S. house prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent in February and 7.1 percent over the past year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The index, which uses the purchase prices of houses with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, is down 13.6 percent from its April 2007 peak and is roughly the same as the October 2004 index level. Prices have not declined on a monthly basis since January 2012.


Poll
This Week’s Quick Poll
Take this week’s Quick Poll on the bank examination environment, and view results from the previous poll on credit union business lending. View the Archive.


Education
Community Bank Buying and Selling This Summer
ICBA and Gerrish McCreary Smith are scheduled to host a unique community bank merger-and-acquisition workshop this summer in Mackinac Island, Mich. At “Community Bank Buying and Selling,” slated for July 31-Aug. 1, experts will work through an actual acquisition agreement showing both buy and sell strategies. Attendees will work through sample pricing models and structuring techniques from a buyer and seller standpoint, discuss actual due diligence issues encountered in the past 12 months, and more. Register Online.