Senate Hearing, 110TH Congress - Examining The Regulation and Supervision of Industrial Loan Companies
Senate Hearing, 110TH Congress - Examining The Regulation and Supervision of Industrial Loan Companies
110950
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
THE REGULATION AND SUPERVISION OF INDUSTRIAL LOAN
COMPANIES
Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
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S. HRG. 110950
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
THE REGULATION AND SUPERVISION OF INDUSTRIAL LOAN
COMPANIES
Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
(
Available at: http: //www.access.gpo.gov /congress /senate /senate05sh.html
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(II)
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C O N T E N T S
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007
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WITNESSES
(III)
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Jagjit J.J. Singh, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Transportation Alliance Bank .......................................................................................
Prepared statement ..........................................................................................
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUPPLIED
FOR THE
RECORD
Letter from E.J. Jake Garn, former U.S. Senator from the State of Utah,
to Chairman Dodd ................................................................................................
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U.S. SENATE,
URBAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met at 10:02 a.m., in room SD538, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Sherrod Brown, presiding.
COMMITTEE
ON
BANKING, HOUSING,
AND
Senator BROWN. The Committee will come to order. Good morning to everyone.
Thank you all for joining us here today as the Committee examines the role that industrial loan companies play in our banking
system. That system, as we know, is a continually changing one as
lenders innovate and Congress from time to time responds to
changes in the landscape. Amidst this change, some principles remain constant. Four times in my lifetime, Congress has acted to
separate commercial firms from banks and vice versa. Truth be
told, I really was not paying particularly close attention to the passage of the 1956 Bank Holding Company Act. Time and again we
have seen the real costs when Congress has failed to act, from the
Depression to the savings and loan crisis. Frankly, we are seeing
variations of the problem today. In Japan, the intermingling of
commerce and banking has led to disastrous results, and here at
home, where the subprime mortgage meltdown has operated largely outside of Federal supervision.
I have been pretty candid all year about what I think has been
the failure of the Federal Reserve to act more aggressively to police
the subprime, non-bank lenders. It would not be inaccurate if our
witness from the Fed made the same observation about Congress
and the ILCs. But I suppose it would be impolite. We need to act
this fall to address this problem, just as we have repeatedly in the
past. When commercial firms set up single-bank holding companies, Congress amended the law in 1970 to reach them. When commercial firms started buying non-bank banks, Congress in 1987
stepped in again. When commercial firms started to acquire thrifts,
Congress responded with Gramm-Leach-Bliley in 1999.
In this spring, in the wake of the tremendous growth in industrial loan company assets since Gramm-Leach-Bliley almost eightfold, the House adopted Representative Paul Gillmors bill to prevent further commercial acquisitions of ILCs by a vote in the
House of 37116. The strength of that vote is a small testament to
(1)
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the respect in which Paul Gillmor was held and the skill with
which he did his job as a legislator.
Paul and I served in Columbus together, he in the Senate, I in
the Lower House in those days, where he had a reputation as a
solid legislator, but it was when we both moved on that our paths
crossed. I was serving as Secretary of State in 1988 when Paul ran
for the open congressional seat in northwest Ohio. Paul won that
primary by initially 35 votes. I as Secretary of State was called in
to conduct the recount, running against the son of the retiring Congressman, Pauls opponent, and I remember saying to my elections
counsel, Make sure you do this one well because the winner of this
Republican primary in this Republican district is going to be in
Congress for the next 20 years.
I was off by a year, but I sure wish I had been off by a lot more.
Congress lost a real expert on these issues, and Karen Gillmor and
the rest of his family and friends lost a good man. I hope we can
pick up where he left off.
Senator Shelby.
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the exemption of ILCs and their holding companies from Fed supervision.
Other than certain grandfathered unitary thrifts and non-bank
banks, this meant that the ILCs were the only option for commercial firms to accept insured deposits and make consumer and commercial loans. In the meantime, ILCs gained in popularity. Between 1987, when CEBA was enacted, and 2004, total assets held
by ILCs rose 3,500 percent.
The mixing of banking and commerce, as the Chairman noted,
raises a number of issues which this Committee must review carefully. Perhaps the most significant concern is the potential for conflicts of interest on the part of commercial owners of a bank which
would jeopardize the banks federally insured deposits.
As we consider the supervision and the regulation of ILCs, I believe we must be mindful of the history of the separation of banking and commerce and the legislative exceptions to such separation
that the Congress has created over the years.
In addition to concerns about the mixing of banking and commerce, the ILC debate also raises questions about the optimal regulatory structure that I alluded to earlier. While the vast majority
of assets in our banking system are subject to consolidated supervision, a significant minority have been regulated through a more
bank-centric approach. Until recently, the FDIC had generally defended the adequacy of the bank-centric approach to regulation. I
think we should consider the merits of both approaches, including
the history of bank failures under each approach.
This leads to a final question. Should the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act be revisited to give the SEC statutory authority as a consolidated supervisor? Despite the fact that Congress did not, as I mentioned, provide this explicit authority to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the SEC has put in
place a version of this authority through its own rulemaking. I do
not believe it would be appropriate to ratify the SECs consolidated
supervisory entities program as an afterthought to the ILC debate.
If some form of a consolidated supervision for unregulated
broker-dealer affiliates and holding companies is needed, we should
thoroughly right here consider such a change before it is codified
in statute. In any event, we should not forget the careful balancing
that went into crafting our current functional regulatory scheme.
These issues are important ones for this Committee with profound implications for the safety and soundness of our financial institutions, the future of financial regulation as we know it, and our
banking system as we know it today. As we move forward, each of
these issues will require the full resources and attention of this
Committee, as well as the cooperation of the regulators.
I thank the Chairman for calling this hearing. I hope it is the
first of many hearings addressing this profound, complex, and fundamental issue surrounding this important topic.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Shelby.
Senator Johnson, would you like toand I would add, Senator
Johnson was very involved in this issue before I came to the Senate, and he and I worked together on this late last year as we prepared for all of this. Senator Johnson.
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OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM JOHNSON
Senator BENNETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate both the hearing and your courtesy in allowing me some input
as to who would be invited here.
I want to welcome Commissioner Ed Leary from Utah. Commissioner Leary began his time as the Commissioner of the Utah Department of Financial Institutions in the same year that I was
elected to the Senate, so we have been wrestling with this question
now in tandem for about 15 years.
This is obviously a subject of great interest to me because Utah
has a number of ILCs chartered in our State. We are not the only
State that charters ILCs, but we have, we believe, the best, wellestablished regulatory structure and safe and sound record. There
has never been an ILC chartered in Utah that has failed, and this
is neither by accident nor loophole.
As I look at the record and legislative history of the ILC Charter,
I see a different picture than that that many others see. Legislation
is usually the solution to a problem. It seems to me that restrictive
legislation on ILCs is a solution in search of a problem. The ILC
Charter has a sterling record. We have not had a failure, as I say,
of a commercially affiliated ILC.
Now, some who are opponents of the ILC say, Yes, but what if
Enron or WorldCom had owned an ILC? That is an interesting
theoretical question. Lets look at the factual record.
Tyco and Conseco both did own ILCs when they ran into serious
trouble. Tycos ILC was successfully spun off in its own public offering, and the Conseco ILC, with the parent in bankruptcy, was
walled off, and the assets were sold for a profit, not a loss.
The record of the ILCs clearly shows that they are among the
safest and most well-capitalized financial institutions in the country, and that also is not by accident. The FDIC, for those that are
headquartered in Utah, in partnership with the Utah Department
of Financial Institutions, rigorously regulates the ILC Charter, and
they are subject to the same safety and soundness, consumer protection, deposit insurance, CRA, and other requirements as all the
other FDIC-insured depository institutions. They are subject to
many of the same requirements as bank holding companies such as
strict restrictions on transactions with their bank affiliates, and
their parent companies are subject to prompt corrective action and
capital guarantee requirements if the banks they control encounter
financial difficulties.
In some instances, they are subject to firewalls and corporate
governance restrictions that exceed those available to bank holding
companies, and these tools, in the words of the former Chairman
of the FDIC, Donald Powell, allow the FDIC to manage the relationships between industrial loan companies and their owners
with little or no risk to the deposit insurance funds and no subsidy
transferred to the non-bank parent.
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I want to stress that because there has always been an assumption there that there was some kind of subsidy to the parent that
went with owning an ILC, and as Chairman Powell makes clear,
that is, in fact, not the case.
The current Chairman of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, has said, ILCs
have proven to be a strong, responsible part of our Nations banking systems innovative approaches banking. Many have contributed significantly to community reinvestment and development.
The record to date demonstrates that the overall industry has operated in a safe and sound manner and that the FDIC has been a
vigilant, responsible supervisor of that industry.
The ILCs exist to serve niches that the rest of the banking system does not serve and, therefore, has a limited-purpose charter.
Lets look at the size of those niches.
The ILCs amount to 59 of almost 8,700 insured depository institutions in this country and control only 1.8 percent of the assets.
Of the 59 existing ILCs, 15 are controlled by a commercial parent,
the others by a financial parent. This is not threatening the stability of the banking system even if it were weak, which it is not.
I also believe the legislative history is very clear. You, Mr. Chairman, have referred to that, as has Senator Shelby. Lets go through
it a little bit again.
The ILC Charter is not a loophole charter. It is a recognized and
intentional exception to the Bank Holding Company Act. There are
many exceptions that have and continue to exist. The Bank Holding Company Act has evolved from a broadly permissive system of
bank commercial affiliations. The current law restricts but does not
prohibit such affiliations.
From 1956 to 1970, BHCA covered only companies that controlled multiple banks. Thus, BHCA allowed any company, including a commercial firm, to control a single bank. Although the onebank holding company exemption was repealed in 1970, the BHCA
continues to this day to cover only companies that own banks. This
exempts individuals, families, and other non-corporate entities
from the act, allowing, among other things, community banks to be
owned by individuals who also own commercial businesses.
If I can put it on a more humble example, your local banker
whose family owns the local bank could also own the car dealer,
the hardware store, and the drycleaner, and that would not be a
violation of BHCA. Combining banking and commerce in this fashion is commonplace across America. We also have other limitedpurpose banks that are exempt from the BHCA, like the one owned
and operated by the Independent Community Bankers of America.
We have never had a bright line separating banking and commerce.
Talk about Gramm-Leach-Bliley? It did eliminate the continuation of the unitary thrift charter, mostly due to the rumor that a
certain large retailer was seeking to acquire one. But that was not
a reaffirmation of a bright line separating banking and commerce.
In fact, ILC powers and the powers of other limited-purpose charters that permitted commercial affiliations were expanded in
Gramm-Leach-Bliley. And I go, as my source for that, to the principal author of Gramm-Leach-BlileySenator Grammwho sat as
Chairman of this Committee.
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STATEMENT OF SENATOR JON TESTER
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I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and other Members
of the Committee. Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Bunning.
Senator Crapo.
Senator CRAPO. Thank you very much, Chairman Brown. I appreciate the fact that we are holding this hearing. I think that we
need to pay a lot more attention to the ILC issue and, frankly, a
lot of other regulatory issues. For my opening statement and any
questions I might have an opportunity to ask, I am going to focus
on a broader context.
The reason we are here talking about the ILC issue is because
we have problems with regard toor let me put it this way: We
have disagreements over who should be the regulator and what the
rules should be for those who are regulated in different aspects of
our commercial and banking system.
As you may know, I worked very hard in the last few years and
last year, or the last Congress, was successful when we finally got
a reg relief bill through to kind of simplify and try to bring some
relief to the financial industries in terms of the regulatory system
with which they are faced.
We got a lot done in that bill, but we also identified a lot more
that needs to be done, and we are working now on what I call Reg
Relief II to try to move further into the arena. But the ILC issue
is just one example, probably a very significant example, that highlights the broader issue of the regulatory system we have in place
for financial industries in the United States. The current structure
we see has multiple regulators and multiple charters and creates
the potential for those who are regulated in one instance or another to have an advantage or a disadvantage over others in the
system. And, again, the very reason we are here holding this hearing on ILCs is we have that structure.
In the near future, the GAO is going to be submitting two reports to Congress that were mandated by the Reg Relief Act. The
first report will be on the volume of currency transaction reports
filed with the Department of Treasury, including, if appropriate,
recommendations for changes to the filing system.
The second report will discuss measurements of regulatory costs
and benefits and efforts to avoid excessive regulatory burdens, the
challenges posed to financial regulators by trends in the industry,
and options to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal financial regulatory structure. And it is my hope that this
Committee will very seriously consider these two reports.
I think the second report in particular will be timely in discussing the ILC debate in the broader context of reviewing our regulatory structure. Along with examining the regulation and supervision of industrial loan companies, we need to examine and consider how to modernize our Federal financial regulatory system.
Our financial regulatory structure continues to be challenged by
the industry trends that increased consolidation, conglomeration,
convergence, and globalization. The financial services firms that
offer similar products are often subjected to different regulatory regimes, creating the potential for inconsistent regulation.
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To address this issue and to improve their competitive position
globally, some nations have now reorganized their regulatory systems, and some have even consolidated their regulators into a single regulatory agency while others have created specialized regulatory agencies that focus solely on ensuring the safety and soundness of institutions or on consumer protections.
I am hearing a lot of talk and praise about Britains approach to
regulation as a model for effective but not onerous systems that
oversee banks, brokers, investment funds, and a system, frankly,
that could improve the competitive position of U.S. markets and financial markets globally. I am very interested in the principlesbased approach to regulation, similar to the FSA in Britain, and I
intend to focus my time in this hearing in addressing those issues.
Mr. Chairman, I do not know if that is exactly the direction we
need to go, but I do know that we need to address the complex,
convoluted regulatory system that we have in the United States
today in an effort to simplify it and avoid these kinds of circumstances where we have different parts of the industry very intensely competing to be sure that they are not put at a disadvantage or in some contexts be sure that they do get an advantage
over others who are performing similar functions in the system.
So, again, I appreciate the focus of this hearing today on the ILC
issue. I hope that this Committee will expand and continue our effort to focus on reg relief efforts in the future, and hopefully we will
be able to modernize and improve our regulatory structure in ways
that go far beyond the current issue of just the ILC debate.
Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Crapo.
I want to call up the first panel of witnesses: Scott Alvarez has
been General Counsel at the Federal Reserve Board since 2004.
Mr. Alvarez joined the Board in 1981 as a staff attorney, became
a senior attorney in 1985. He earned a B.A. in economics from
Princeton in 1977 and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law
Center in 1981.
John Bovenzi is the Deputy to the Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Mr.
Bovenzi has worked at the FDIC since 1981, when he joined the
agency as a financial economist. Since then he has served in a
number of positions, including as Director of Division of Resolutions and Receiverships, Deputy Director of the Office of Research
and Statistics, and Special Assistant to FDIC Board Member C.C.
Hope, Jr. Mr. Bovenzi holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Massachusetts, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Scott Polakoff has been the Senior Deputy Director and Chief
Operating Officer, Office of Thrift Supervision, since 2005. Prior to
joining OTS, Mr. Polakoff served 22 years with the FDIC in many
capacities, including an FDIC review examiner in the Dallas Region, assistant to the Executive Director in Washington. He most
recently was Regional Director, Division of Supervision and Customer Protection in the FDICs Chicago office.
Erik Sirri is the Director of the Division of Market Regulation at
the Securities and Exchange Commission. He served as the SECs
Chief Economist from 1996 to 1999. From 1989 until 1995, he
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served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. Dr. Sirri
holds his Ph.D. in finance from the University of California, Los
Angeles, an M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, and
a B.S. in astronomyastronomy?from the California Institute of
Technology. One of them.
[Laughter.]
Edward Leary was appointed Commissioner of the Utah Department of Financial Institutions in June 1992. He joined the department in 1977 as an examiner and held positions as industry supervisor and chief examiner before his appointment as Commissioner.
Commissioner Leary serves as Chairman of the Board of Financial
Institutions and is the Past Chairman of the Conference of State
Bank Supervisors. Commissioner Leary holds his B.S. in political
science and an M.B.A. from the University of Utah. He retired in
1995 as a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Before hearing your oral testimony, Senator Reed, do you want
to make an opening statement? If you do, we can
Senator REED. Mr. Chairman, let me put my statement in the
record and proceed to the witnesses.
Senator BROWN. Thank you for that.
I want to remind all the witnesses that your oral statements
must be under 5 minutes. Time is tight today, so we will enforce
that 5-minute rule. Your entire written statement, of course, will
be part of the record. We look forward to your testimony.
Mr. Alvarez, please begin.
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The exception also is open-ended and subject to very few statutory restrictions. There is no limit on the number of ILCs that the
grandfathered States may charter going forward, and Federal law
allows ILCs to engage in virtually the full range of deposit taking,
lending, and payment-related activities.
The Board is concerned that the recent and potential future
growth of ILCs threatens to undermine the decisions that Congress
has made concerning the separation of banking and commerce and
the proper supervisory framework at the Federal level for companies that own a federally insured bank. For many years, Congress
has sought to maintain the general separation of banking and commerce. Congress reaffirmed this policy in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act of 1999, when it closed the unitary thrift loophole, which previously allowed commercial firms to acquire a federally insured
savings association.
As you know, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allows financial holding companies to engage in full-service securities, insurance, and
merchant banking activities. Yet Congress allowed only broader financial affiliations and allowed these financial affiliations, which is
a lesser step than allowing commercial affiliations, only for companies that ensure that all of their subsidiary depository institutions
remain well capitalized and well managed and maintain at least a
satisfactory CRA rating.
The ILC exception undermines each of these decisions. It allows
insured ILCs to affiliate with commercial firms, not just financial
firms, as provided in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Moreover, it
does not impose anything comparable to the strong capital, managerial, and CRA requirements that Congress established for financial holding companies in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
The ILC exception also undermines the supervisory framework
that Congress established for the corporate owners of insured
banks. Although ILCs themselves are fully and capably supervised
by both State and Federal banking authorities in the same manner
as other commercial banks, the parent company of an ILC may not
be. This creates a supervisory blind spot because the supervisory
authority over bank holding companies and their non-bank subsidiaries under the BHC Act is significantly broader than the supervisory authority that the primary Federal supervisor of an ILC has
with respect to the corporate owner and affiliates of an ILC.
In 1991, Congress also made consolidated supervision a prerequisite for foreign banks seeking to acquire a bank in the United
States. The ILC exception, however, allows a foreign bank that is
not subject to consolidated supervision in its home country to evade
this requirement and acquire an insured bank in the United
States.
The Board applauds the Committee for holding this hearing. The
ILC exception is reshaping the Nations policies on banking and
commerce and the supervisory framework for the corporate owners
of insured banks. The Board believes that the decisions on these
important policies which influence the structure and resiliency of
our financial system and economy should not be decided by a few
companies through the exploitation of an exception, but should be
decided by Congress, which can act in the Nations best interest.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
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Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Alvarez.
Mr. Bovenzi.
Mr. BOVENZI. Senator Brown, Members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation concerning industrial loan companies.
The FDIC strongly supports efforts to provide statutory guidance
on the key issues regarding the ILC Charter, especially the issue
of commercial ownership. Many of the issues surrounding the ILC
Charter involve important public policy that are best left to Congress for resolution. This hearing and proposals for possible legislative solutions are encouraging developments that hopefully will
lead to the resolution of key ILC-related issues by the end of the
year.
ILCs have proven to be a strong, responsible part of our Nations
banking system. Many ILCs have made significant contributions to
community reinvestment and development. Other ILCs serve customers who have not traditionally been served by other types of financial institutions. Overall, the ILC industry has operated in a
safe and sound manner, and the FDIC has been a vigilant, responsible supervisor of that industry.
ILCs represent a very small part of the overall banking industry,
composing less than 1 percent of the approximately 8,600 insured
depository institutions in this country and only 1.8 percent of assets. Of the 59 existing ILCs, 44 are either widely held or controlled by a parent company whose business is primarily financial
in nature. These ILCs represent approximately 84 percent of ILC
assets and 87 percent of ILC deposits. The remaining 15 ILCs are
associated with parent companies that may be considered non-financial.
There has been significant growth in the ILC industry in recent
years, with most of that growth occurring since 1996 and concentrated in a few number of these firms. In addition to the growth
in the ILC industry, the character of ILCs has been changing. In
the current business environment, many ILCs tend to be more complex and differ substantially from their original consumer lending
focus. In some circumstances, consolidated supervision may not be
present and the current supervisory infrastructure may not provide
sufficient safeguards to address safety and soundness risks to the
Deposit Insurance Fund.
To address these developing concerns, the FDIC has taken a
number of actions regarding ILCs in the past year. In July 2006,
the FDIC Board of Directors adopted a 6-month moratorium on all
applications for deposit insurance and changing controls for ILCs.
The moratorium allowed the FDIC to evaluate public and industry
comments, assess developments in the industry, and consider how
best to apply the Corporations statutory powers for oversight of
these charters.
It is clear that the most significant concern regarding ILCs is
their ownership by companies engaged in nonfinancial activities.
Based on this analysis, the FDIC Board voted to extend the mora-
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torium through January 2008. Under the extended moratorium,
the FDIC will not take any action on an application for deposit insurance or changing control for a company that would be controlled
primarily by one engaged in commercial activities. The moratorium
extension does not apply to ILCs that would be controlled by a
company engaged only in financial activities or that would not be
part of a holding company structure.
In addition to providing the FDIC with time to examine the appropriate supervisory structure for the changing ILC industry, extending the moratorium provides additional time for Congress to
consider legislation, although the FDIC is not endorsing any particular legislative approach.
In closing, ILCs have a good safety and soundness track record
to date. They have proven to be a strong and responsible part of
our Nations banking system, yet the types and number of ILC applications have evolved over the years. These changes pose potential risks that deserve further study and raise important public policy issues. The FDIC has the responsibility to consider applications
under existing statutory criteria and make decisions. While it is appropriate to proceed cautiously, the FDIC cannot defer action on
these matters indefinitely.
The current statutory exemption providing for the ILC Charter
is quite broad. By providing clear parameters to the scope of the
charter, Congress can eliminate much of the uncertainty and controversy surrounding it. Resolving these issues will enhance the
value of the ILC Charter going forward. The FDIC looks forward
to working with Congress in the coming months as you work to
bring these matters to closure.
This concludes my statement. I will be happy to answer any
questions that the Committee might have. Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Bovenzi.
Mr. Polakoff.
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Congress confirmed that authority in 1999 with the Gramm-LeachBliley Act. OTS currently supervises savings and loan holding companies that control more than 55 percent of the ILC industry assets. These holding companies, which own thrifts and are, therefore, statutorily regulated by OTS, include Merrill Lynch & Company, Morgan Stanley, American Express Company, USAA, Lehman Brothers Holdings, General Electric, Beal Financial, and General Motors Corporation.
The ILC debate raises a number of important issues with respect
to key areas of permissible activities and oversight of companies
that own or seek to acquire an ILC. Chief among these are affiliate
risks, including risks from commercial activities that could impact
the insured financial institution.
As you know, Gramm-Leach-Bliley grandfathered a number of
commercial firms within the unitary thrift holding company. Currently, the OTS regulates 17 commercial firms that own thrift institutions, and we have a sound improvement oversight program
that addresses potential risks arising from commercial activities. In
addition to several of the companies I just mentioned, the commercial entities that we supervise include Temple Inland Corporation,
Archer-Daniels-Midland, John Deere Corporation, Nordstrom, and
Federated Department Stores.
In exercising our statutory authority of savings and loan holding
companies, we work cooperatively with other regulators, including
Federal and State banking agencies, functional regulators, including State insurance supervisors, and Federal and State securities
supervisors. We also coordinate with international financial supervisors on the oversight of the internationally active savings and
loan holding companies and their affiliates and subsidiaries. In
fact, our supervisory program is internationally recognized by foreign regulators, including the U.K.s Financial Services Authority,
or FSA, and Frances Commission Bancaire, and has achieved
equivalency status from the EU for three firms: General Electric
Company, AIG, and Ameriprise Financial Group.
We are also recognized by Federal statute as one of the two U.S.
regulators authorized to make a determination as to whether a foreign bank entering the U.S. is subject to comprehensive consolidated supervision for purposes of coordinating consolidated supervision of its domestic banking activities.
The OTS status as a consolidated U.S. supervisor requires extensive contact with the domestic and international supervisory community for these and other internationally active complex firms supervised by the OTS. I would also note that the GAO has confirmed
that the OTS has a strong and internationally recognized consolidated holding company supervision regime.
In sum, the OTS has extensive experience overseeing savings
and loan holding companies, including financial conglomerates and
commercial holding company structures. OTS supervision provides
a strong and robust regulatory framework that oversees a holding
companys risk management platform. This approach ensures the
flexibility these firms require to compete in the dynamic marketplace while providing a strong supervisory structure over their policies, procedures, and activities.
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We support the Committee efforts to address concerns with respect to the oversight of ILC holding company parents, recognizing
that the OTS currently exercises effective supervision of savings
and loans holding companies that control more than half of the ILC
industry assets.
In considering possible ILC legislation, we urge the Committee
to preserve existing OTS authority and oversight of savings and
loan holding companies that own or control ILCs. This will promote
functional regulation while also promoting consolidated regulatory
oversight of these companies.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to answering your
questions.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Polakoff.
Mr. Sirri.
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erates Directive, which essentially requires non-EU financial institutions doing business in Europe to be supervised on a consolidated
basis. In response, the Commission in 2004 crafted a new comprehensive consolidated supervision program that was intended to
protect all regulated entities within a group, including the brokerdealers. The rule restricted CSE eligibility to groups with large,
well-capitalized broker-dealers. In other words, the Commission believed that it should only supervise on a consolidated basis those
firms engaged primarily in the securities business, and not holding
companies that are affiliated with a broker-dealer as an incident to
their primary business activities. To this end, the rule effectively
requires that the principal broker-dealer have tentative net capital
of $5 billion.
The CSE program has five principal components: First, CSE
holding companies are required to maintain and document a system of internal controls that must be approved by the Commission
at the time of initial application. Second, before approval and on
an ongoing basis, the Commission examines the implementation of
these controls. Third, CSEs are also monitored continuously for financial and operational weakness that might put the regulated entities at risk within the group or put the broader financial system
at risk. Fourth, CSEs are required to compute a capital adequacy
measure at the holding company that is consistent with the Basel
Standard. And, finally, CSEs are required to maintain significant
pools of liquidity at the holding company level, where these are
available for use in any regulated or unregulated entity within the
group without regulatory restriction.
These five principal program components are implemented in
conjunction with the authority to protect regulated entities within
the groups. When potential weaknesses are identified, the Commission has broad discretion under our rules to respond. For example,
The Commission has broad discretion to mandate changes to a
firms risk management policies and procedures, effectively requiring an increase in the amount of regulatory capital maintained at
the holding company, or requiring an expansion of the pool of highly liquid assets held at the parent. The powers are not theoretical.
All three of these steps have been taken over the years at various
CSEs.
The program of consolidated supervision that I have described reduces the likelihood that a weakness at the holding company or at
an unregulated affiliate will place a regulated entity, including an
ILC, or the broader financial system, at risk. My written testimony
describes in more detail the means by which we monitor on an ongoing basis the financial and operational condition of the CSEs.
In conclusion, while we generally support the goals of consolidated supervision of holding companies affiliated with industrial
loan companies, any legislation should ensure that CSEs, which
are highly regulated under the Commissions consolidated supervision program, are not subjected to an additional layer of duplicative and burdensome holding company oversight. Any legislation
should recognize the unique ability of the Commission to comprehensively supervise the consolidated groups that are overwhelmingly in the securities business, especially given the heightened focus these days on the issue of global competitiveness. And
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any legislation should carefully respect the deference accorded by
Gramm-Leach-Bliley to functional regulators in overseeing the activities of functionally regulated members of financial holding companies.
I would be happy to take any questions. Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Sirri.
Mr. Leary.
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munity Reinvestment Act, Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering examinations.
The supervisory model of the industrial bank has been referred
to as a bank-centric model. This is not a new concept when examining a bank as part of a holding company structure. Industrial
banks based in Utah have represented a laboratory for those insured institutions owned by commercial entities.
The evolving supervisory approaches of Utah and the FDIC have
helped fine-tune processes and procedures that insulate and insure
a depository institution from potential abuses and conflicts of interest. Critical controls have been developed of this cooperation between Utah and the FDIC.
In the industrial bank model, the bank is insulated and isolated
from the potential negative effects of a parent company by existing
Federal banking laws. However, in addition, we require the bank
to maintain its own separate capital, independent management,
and a requirement that the board of directors consists of a majority
outside independent directors.
I think one could argue that having more banks in the market
would help supply much needed liquidity into the market, and having a diversified parent company not solely dependent on banking
would be able to provide such needed liquidity. Having more liquidity, more competition, more diversification of insured deposits, less
concentration by large banking corporations is good for the market,
for the FDIC, and ultimately for the U.S. consumer.
Worst case has been postulated that a financial institution holding company would file bankruptcy or get into financial difficulty.
While the reality is we have had both of those occur in Utah, and
while no regulator relishes stressful circumstances, I can state that
we successfully weathered the storm.
In this final point, I think we need to keep in perspective that
the entire industrial loan industry, even with its growth during the
last 20 years, represents only 1.8 percent of banking assets. Utah
law establishes, besides all other jurisdiction and enforcement authorities over industrial banks, that every industrial bank holding
company must register with the department and is subject to the
same jurisdiction and enforcement authority as the bank. Utah
commenced last year a program where every holding company will
receive an inspection at least every 3 years, coupled with ongoing
offsite monitoring of rating agencies, analyst opinions, and market
sources. Where there is a Federal agency involved, we attempt to
offer resources and share work product.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to express my
thoughts and your willingness to listen to a State regulator.
Senator BROWN. Thank you very much, Mr. Leary, for joining us.
Mr. Alvarez, you spoke in your testimony of a supervisory blind
spot. Would you expand on that?
Mr. ALVAREZ. Certainly. Owners of banks are required to be supervised under the Bank Holding Company Act by a Federal regulator, the Federal Reserve. Owners of savings associates are required to be supervised by the OTS. Owners of ILCs, however, are
not required to be supervised by anyone. There is no one with authority to supervise an owner of an ILC based on their ownership
of the ILC.
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That is the trend going forward. ILC growth has been by companies that do not own a savings association or a bank or are not part
of the SECs CSE program. So the recent applications that the
FDIC has been charged with dealing with largely involve institutions thatcorporate owners that will not be supervised by anyone
unless there is a change in the law.
Senator BROWN. Mr. Bovenzi, suppose there is an application for
an ILC that is limited, serving a niche market of some sort. If the
application is approved, are the limitations forever part of that
charter?
Mr. BOVENZI. Not necessarily. What would happen with an application is someone would come forward with a business plan; we
would look at it and determine its appropriateness, whether it was
meeting the statutory criteria to give it approval. If it did, it would
receive approval. There would be nothing that would stop that applicant, once approved, to come back and request a change in their
business plan at a later date, and then that would be evaluated at
that point.
Senator BROWN. Is that troubling to any of you as regulators, his
answer to that? Mr. Polakoff?
Mr. POLAKOFF. Senator, I would offer that the examiners do a
great job of examining all insured financial institutions and understanding the risk profile of those institutions, and through a prudential examination program, I believe the examiners are able to
measure the risk profile versus a constantly changing business
strategy and assess the risk properly.
Senator BROWN. OK. You were going to say something?
Mr. ALVAREZ. The one concern I would have on the change in
conditions of charter is that it does mean that the situation could
develop over time and that conditions that initially are imposed in
order to hold still a system may not be able to withstand the passage of time. If things do not develop that are troubling, then the
conditions often are removed over time.
So it is difficult toit is not wise, I think, to develop a policy
based on the thought that conditions will not change over time.
Senator BROWN. Mr. Alvarez, in a slightly different direction, I
think the Federal regulators on the panel pretty clearly agree that
consolidated supervision is a good idea, provided there is not duplication. Explain to me why this is important. And do you have any
examples of why simply looking at a bank is not sufficient?
Mr. ALVAREZ. Yes. Looking at a bank is certainly a necessary element of proper supervision. On the other hand, a holding company
can serve as a source of weakness to the Bank, and there are examples in the ILC context. A small ILC in California that was
owned by a holding company that was engaged itself in very risky
activities had incurred significant leverage at the holding company,
was not able to access the markets to get additional capital when
its ILC ran into trouble, and was not able to provide managerial
or other financial strengths to the ILC when the ILC was in trouble. The ILC then failed.
The job of a supervisor of a holding company is to make sure that
a holding company does not serve as that kind of source of weakness to identify risks at the holding company that could be transmitted to the bank or that other things that could be an impedi-
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ment to holding company serving as a source of strength to the
bank.
Senator BROWN. Thank you.
Senator Bennett.
Senator BENNETT. Thank you very much.
Mr. Alvarez, I hope I am not mischaracterizing, but I got a little
sense out of your prepared testimony that the sky is falling and we
have to act really quickly or we will be hit with great chunks of
crystallized cloud and other problems coming from above. I wonder
how that is possible when we are talking about, as pointed out, less
than 1 percent of the Nations financial institutions and 1.8 percent
of the total assets and a history of no failures. You answers used
words like could and may possibly and things of that kind, but
dealing with the actual reality of the marketplace here, I do not see
a solid case for changing the regulatory regime.
On March 19, 1997, Alan Greenspan said the following in testimony to the Capital Markets Subcommittee: The case is weak, in
our judgment, for umbrella supervision of a holding company in
which the bank is not the dominant unit and is not large enough
to induce systemic problems should it fail.
Now, obviously, we talk about things have changed and the attitude of the Fed has changed since Chairman Greenspan made that
statement.
What event caused the Fed to change its mind from Greenspans
position?
Mr. ALVAREZ. Senator, I think there are a couple of things. First
of all, the Fed believesand I think the Senate has asked us to
identify issues before they become a crisis and before they become
a problem as we see them developing. Since the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 that closed the unitary thrift loophole, there has
been a significant increase in the amount of applications to acquire
industrial loan companies by commercial entities. And it has become quite clear that this is now the avenue of choice for undermining the decisions Congress made in banking and commerce and
regarding the supervisory framework.
So I am not here to tell you that disaster has already occurred.
I am here to tell you that things are changing in a dramatic way
that we think will not be easy to unwind. It will be very difficult
once a significant number of institutions have acquireda significant number of institutions have acquired ILCs, to roll back that
clock. It will be very difficult to change the supervisory framework
when there is a large group that owns ILCs outside of that statutory framework.
Senator BENNETT. You say that these applications have been undermining the decisions of Congress, and I repeat to you, as I said
in my opening statement, the man who had the most to do with
writing the decisions of Congress does not agree with you. Senator
Gramm believes that the activities with respect to ILC were precisely what they had in mind when they passed Gramm-Leach-Bliley.
I would like to focus for just a minute on the consumer. The
whole purpose of an ILC is to serve an underserved area in the
consumer world. If there is an area in the consumer world that is
currently being served, there is no market opportunity for an ILC
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to get in there unless there is some kind of improper advantage,
and no one has suggested that that improper advantage exists.
But the track record of ILCs is that the consumers have benefited over a wide range of the economy in relative small niche after
niche after niche where the ILC, by virtue of its understanding of
that niche, has gone after that opportunity and provided financial
services to a consumer or a group of consumers that did not have
those services available to it in a convenient way before that.
I am concerned that if we clamp down in the way that you are
talking about from an overall regulatory standpoint in Washington,
there is going to be a concomitant diminution of consumer services
available out in the country as a whole.
I would appreciate your comments about that, any of you.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Senator, if I might respond, I think that to the extent that we believe the ILC is helpful to consumers because it allows banks to be affiliated with commercial firms, then perhaps we
should consider the broader issue of banking and commerce and
whether Congress should change that framework for everyone.
Right now, 99 percent of the owners of banks are prohibited from
being involved in commercial activities at all. You suggest that consumers are benefited by the fact that ILCs are allowed to mix
banking and commerce. If that is really a benefit to consumers,
then Congress should consider how to allow more people to take
advantage of that and allow consumers to better be served by that
combination and all of the kinds of protections that Congress
thinks might be appropriate in assuring that the dangers of mixing
banking and commerce also do not get passed on to the taxpayer,
but that the consumer is able to benefit.
So we think that there is a level playing field here that should
be addressed as well, and consumers could either benefit or be hurt
in both directions.
Senator BENNETT. Senator Gramm felt it was going in the other
direction.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator BROWN. Thank you.
Senator Reed.
Senator REED. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow
up and try to define, in my mind at least, this regulatory blind
spot.
With Mr. Bovenzi, Mr. Polakoff, and Mr. Sirri, there is a combination of SEC, OTS, and FDIC supervision of the ILC and the
parent in certain cases. But is there a category of arrangements
where there is no supervision of the parent whatsoever? Mr. Alvarez.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Yes, Senator, there are. The universe of companies
that own a savings association is fixed. The CSE, the group that
the SEC supervises, is not fixed by statute but is rather small. And
there are several, actually, owners of ILCs that are bank holding
companies supervised by the Federal Reserve.
But when you take those fixed universes out, there is a large
group of corporate owners of industrial loan companies that are supervised by no one, and that is the group that is growing over time.
That is the group that wants to affiliate with ILCs now.
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Senator REED. So that is the potential that you are anticipating,
a company that would not be subject to SEC at the holding company level.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Correct.
Senator REED. At the parent level, OTS or FDIC, they have now
sort of an open range, if you will, to acquire or create ILCs, and
unless they agree, some type of voluntary supervision to say you
do not supervise me.
Mr. ALVAREZ. That is correct.
Senator REED. And that potential, if there is no boundary, is extremely large.
Mr. ALVAREZ. It is. It includes all commercial companies as well
as financial companies.
Senator REED. Let me ask another question which is reflective of
some of the comments you made. Are there any ILCs owned by foreign entities today?
Mr. ALVAREZ. There is one that is owned by a foreign bank, but
a foreign bank that is supervised by the Federal Reserve.
Senator REED. If there was an acquisition by a foreign entity,
Airbus or someone who wanted to buy it, would that trigger some
type of change in control application or could they simply set it up,
fund it, and there is no way you could turn them down because of
the nature of their activities? Is that the latter case?
Mr. ALVAREZ. That would be subject to a change in control act
notice before the FDIC. That is the subject of the FDICs moratorium at this point, which is due to expire in January.
Senator REED. OK. With respect to your role, Mr. Leary, which
is very critical in Utah, do you have statutory authority to supervise the parent of the ILC?
Mr. LEARY. Yes, sir. That was my final point. We do have that
authority. It has never been challenged. What we had not done effectively until more recently was attemptor establish a regulatory program where we go into those holding companies. And the
universe we are talking about is really about ten companies where
there is no Federal oversight at this current point in time.
Senator REED. Do you have the capacity to do that?
Mr. LEARY. Yes.
Senator REED. Without being less than respectful, because, you
know, one of the issues at the State government level is that, you
know, sophisticatedthe capacity to do that, the number of examiners you have, the ability to send them to Paris to look at the
books of the companies sometimes is limited. I speak from experience back in my own home State.
Mr. LEARY. I will tell you, with respect to the domestic side of
it, our examiners are going all around the country now to look at
the operations of our industrial banks. I am fortunate in that the
industry has been very supportive ofthey want quality regulation. It is not in their best interest or ours not to have that. So they
have supported the structure that establishes sound regulatory
agency.
Senator REED. Do you have a potential problem, at least, as a
Utah examiner goes into an ILC that has a presence in Missouri,
for example, frankly, you know, is there a problem just of enforcing
yourI guess you get the holding
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Mr. LEARY. We have the holding company of the bank
headquartered and chartered in Utah; therefore, we go into it. So
my statement is we have gone around, we are going around in
large numbers looking at the operations of
Senator REED. All right. You said you had an independent board.
Is that independent of the holding company or of the bank?
Mr. LEARY. Of the holding company.
Senator REED. So that they would have to havethe majority of
the members could not have any direct affiliation with the holding
company.
Mr. LEARY. Absolutely.
Senator REED. OK. And what type of powers do you have? Could
you compel the holding company to put more capital into the
Mr. LEARY. Yes.
Senator REED. OK. Have you ever tried to do that?
Mr. LEARY. Have not.
Senator REED. Again, I just think that Mr. Alvarez has pointed
out a situation where this could be exploited dramatically by folks
coming in, taxing the capacity of any one States to be effective regulators. Also, on another pointand my time is running out
which you might get to if you can weave it into other questions and
responses, is the comparative advantage that these institutions
have versus a fully regulated financial entity in the United States,
someone subject to Bank Holding Company, FDIC, et cetera, or
OTS supervision.
Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Senator Bunning.
Senator BUNNING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bovenzi, last year the FDICyou talked about the moratorium that is set to expire in January. Will you allow it to expire?
Mr. BOVENZI. The moratorium will automatically expire at the
end of January, and our Chairman
Senator BUNNING. But you set it, so you have the opportunity to
extend it or not to.
Mr. BOVENZI. That is correct. Our Board of Directors could make
that decision. Our Chairman stated that we do not expect to extend
it beyond the end of January.
Senator BUNNING. OK. What information do you not have access
to that is needed to assess safety and soundness?
Mr. BOVENZI. The authority that we have largely relates to the
individual insured institution. We have a full range of authority
there. To the extent that it involved relationships with affiliates of
that insured institution, we have the authority to examineif we
feel that the affiliate is having some effect on the financial condition of the insured institution, we have examination authority
under those circumstances. We have enforcement authority as well.
So we use that authority to gather information from affiliates and
holding companies to help assess implications for the insured institution.
Senator BUNNING. Then you are telling me that you do not have
any problems?
Mr. BOVENZI. I can tell you our history to date is that has
worked well for us.
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Senator BUNNING. This is for anyone. Why are you not worried
about commercial enterprises owning finance companies as you are
about them owning banks? Can lenders not cause as much damage
to our financial system as banks? Anyone.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Senator, one of the differences between ownership
of a financial company, say a lending company, and ownership of
a bank is that the bank collects deposits that are insured by the
FDIC and backed by the taxpayer. It is because of that obligation
of the taxpayer that the Federal Government has traditionally insisted on supervisory authority over the insured bank itself and the
owner of the insured bank.
Senator BUNNING. Mr. Leary, in your examination of industrial
banks owned by commercial enterprises, have you found any evidence that they are more likely to fail than banks owned by regulated holding companies?
Mr. LEARY. My answer would be no, we have not found there is
a preponderance for them to fail. The holding company business
plans may change, but what we have attempted to do is cocoon and
isolate that insured bank, it has its own deposit, it has its own
board of directors, it has its own management. And the example I
tried to use is we have had two examples where parents have had
trouble, but those banks continued and remained either in operation or somebody else came in and bought it and established it as
a bank.
The true thrust, I think, of your question, Senator, is under a
banking umbrellaand, believe me, it is in the States best interest
to get these institutions under a strong banking umbrellathe
standards are higher, the quality of performance demanded of management is higher, and I think the country is well served when
they are under this higher standard of banking. And that is specifically applied to those that may be owned by commercial entities
not currently supervised by Federal agencies.
Senator BUNNING. This is for anyone. Do you have any evidence
that industrial banks owned by commercial enterprises have endangered other regulated institutions?
Mr. BOVENZI. No.
Senator BUNNING. Anybody else?
Mr. POLAKOFF. No, sir.
Mr. LEARY. No.
Senator BUNNING. If Congress enacts new regulations of industrial banks, is there any reason not to allow banks chartered in any
State to get deposit insurance?
Mr. LEARY. I would volunteer the answer from the Utah perspective. I have been asked if the model in Utah works well, would we
support other States? While I would not support other States, I
have absolutely no problem with other States being able to take advantage of the model
Senator BUNNING. What about the Fed?
Mr. ALVAREZ. Sir, if you believe that industrial loan companies
offer an advantage and that the policy of the United States should
be that there would be a mixing of banking and commerce, then
we believe it should be done on a level playing field with all folks
being
Senator BUNNING. Regulated?
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Mr. ALVAREZ [continuing]. Able to take care of this and all in the
same framework.
Senator BUNNING. OK. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Bunning.
Senator Allard.
Senator ALLARD. Mr. Chairman, I apologize for missing the opening statements.
Senator BROWN. Proceed.
Senator ALLARD. I come from a State that had industrial bank
failures, and I served in the legislature at the time that happened,
and it was not a pleasant experience. We obviously were not following the Utah model in Colorado at the time. What it ended up
being is that the State of Colorado ended up mitigating damages
to the depositors in the banks by sharing in the cost of those lost
dollars, and even despite that, those depositors did lose money.
You know, I gather from your discussion here that you are mainly concerned about the potential risk to the Federal Insurance Corporation. Is that right?
Mr. ALVAREZ. That is right.
Senator ALLARD. I guess one of the things that we are struggling
with in this particular piece of legislation working with the Chairman is what is the proper threshold of where you consider non-financial services when you make the definition. We have in the legislation 15 percent. I understand that there might be members on
this panel that think that should be lower, and I would like to get
some discussion on that. I think it would be beneficial.
I think when we looked at it, we looked at it from a practical aspect and that sometimes a bank, if they are expanding, they will
take a building that is larger than what they need, and they will
lease out that buildingor maybe it is just part of diversifying the
use of that building. They will lease it out, and it could easily exceed 15 percentwell, I should not say easily. They could. But we
thought that 15 percent was sort of a reasonable balance in that,
and I would like to hear some comment from the panel members
if you would, please.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Well, Senator, this is an issue that was debated in
the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. You may recall that there were proposals to have a 5-percent commercial basket in Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and after much debate, those proposals were either withdrawn
or defeated.
It is hard to figure out exactly the right place to draw the line.
The question, though, I think, is thatand I think the concern
from the Fed is that Congress should be the one that does draw
that line, and we think it would be important to have some hearings on this issue to decide what the costs and benefits of mixing
banking and commerce at any level should be, beyond the GrammLeach-Bliley Act, to look at the experience in Asian countries and
in other countries that have mixed banking and commerce, to try
to decide if that is a road we want to go down, and if so, whether
to go in stages, as you suggest, 5 or 10 or 15, or to open it up more
broadly.
It is a very complicated issue. There are lots of questions about
how to prevent the transmission of risk from a commercial entity
to a bank. There are lots of questions of how to ensure that banks
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that are owned or affiliated with commercial companies are competitive and deal with everyone equally rather than just favoring
the commercial entity itself. There are other issues in banking and
commerce that deserve exploration, and it is very difficult to say
it is safe to pick one basket, one line or another. I think we would
welcome a broad debate on the issue.
Senator ALLARD. It is probably best that we have some bright
line there, and then people learn to work with it.
Mr. ALVAREZ. But then you would be able to set the line with
some understanding of what the costs are with that line.
Senator ALLARD. Right. Any other comments on the panel?
Mr. BOVENZI. Senator, I would just add that we do not have a
particular view on where you want to draw that line. We do think
this is the most significant public policy issue that is brought up
and that Congress should try to draw that line and provide everyone with a workable solution.
Senator ALLARD. Any other comments?
[No response.]
Senator ALLARD. Mr. Alvarez, you talked a little bit about foreign
countries that have combined commercial with banking financial
institutions.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Yes.
Senator ALLARD. And I am wondering, I assume the panel has
maybe looked at this in foreign countries where this happened.
Japan is the country that comes to my attention. They combine and
intermix extensively, I think, commercial and banking.
Has that worked well in Japan? Or have there been some shortcomings? And would somebody comment on that? I would like to
know how that is working.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Well, I am not an expert in the Japanese system,
but it has had its advantages and its disadvantages. I think the
corporate entities in the broader affiliations have done well during
times when they have needed financing. But it certainly was the
combination of banking and commerce, and the amount of risk that
the depository institutions had taken on from their corporate affiliates that certainly was one of the factors in the problems Japan
has encountered recently. It is very complicated. It is only one of
many factors, but it was one of the factors in the long period of
Japanese doldrums.
Mr. POLAKOFF. Senator, if I could offer
Senator ALLARD. Yes.
Mr. POLAKOFF. I am certainly not an expert either. The issue
may not necessarily be ownership. The issue may be prudential
regulation, ensuring that the proper rules are in place, the proper
examination procedures are in place. And then I would offer a level
playing field amongst all the insured institutions.
Senator ALLARD. I do know that some of our discussion, you
know, when we have problems with banks, we take care of it right
away. And from what I hear, in Japan it does not get taken care
of right away, and I wondered if this had anything to do with that.
So thank you for your comments.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Allard.
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Senator Bennett and Senator Reed have asked for an additional
3-minute second round, which we will do. I wanted to clarifyand
then Senator Carper certainly has an opportunity. I wanted to clarify Mr. Polakoffs statements about Mr. Alvarezs statement and
part response to Senator Allard about the comments of mixing
banking and commerce in other countries, so that the shortfall in
other countries, in your mind, Mr. Polakoff, is less the question of
mixing commerce and banking as it is the lack of a solid regulatory
structure?
Mr. POLAKOFF. Looking at it from a domestic perspective, Senator, I would say that the ownership issue is to an examiner not
the key point. It is having an effective prudential examination program with the right legislative action all in place to prevent abuses
from occurring between the entities.
Senator BROWN. OK. Thank you.
Senator Carper, would you like a round of questions?
Senator CARPER. I would. It will be a short round.
Senator BROWN. OK. Go for it. Thank you.
Senator CARPER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
To all of our panelists, welcome today. Thanks for being here and
for your testimony and responding to our questions.
I understand that a number of auto companies have affiliated
ILCs. Does anybody know which ones?
Mr. LEARY. Senator, I have the list here, if you would like it, at
least with respect to Utah. The FDIC might be better served to
have the list for all of them.
Senator CARPER. OK.
Mr. LEARY. BMW, Volkswagenwhich is in the process of liquidating their bank at this point in time.
Senator CARPER. Any idea why?
Mr. LEARY. Excuse me?
Senator CARPER. Any idea why?
Mr. LEARY. Change of ownership at the ultimate holding company would require additional application, which would be caught
in the current moratorium that is going on.
Senator CARPER. OK.
Mr. LEARY. Simply an existing owner of Volkswagen desiring to
increase its ownership level.
With respect also to GM, GM has oneGMAC. And then we
have twowhen I say we, Utah has two applications that we
haveone received and approved, one that has been delivered from
Chrysler and Ford.
Senator CARPER. You say one that has been received and approved?
Mr. LEARY. The Chrysler application has been received and approved at the State level, not at the FDIC level.
Senator CARPER. OK. And did you mention Ford?
Mr. LEARY. The Ford application has beenwe have received it.
We have not accepted it as complete yet because of the moratorium.
Senator CARPER. Thank you.
Are there any others that were not included in that list? Is that
everybody?
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Mr. LEARY. In Nevada, there is Toyota, I am well aware of it,
and also not specifically auto but Harley Davidson.
Senator CARPER. OK. Are there any regulatory concerns that you
all have with auto company ILCs? Either a yes or no.
Mr. BOVENZI. Up to date, everything is operated in a safe and
sound manner.
Senator CARPER. OK. Anybody else?
Mr. LEARY. I would respond that the provisions of 23A and B and
the firewalls that have been established there seemed adequate to
allow for prudential regulation.
Senator CARPER. OK. Good.
All right. Mr. Chairman, I told you it would be a short round,
and it was. Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Impressive, Senator Carper. Thank you.
Senator Bennett is recognized for 3 minutes.
Senator BENNETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have
just two questions.
One, picking up on the final question that Senator Reed asked
when he talked about is there a competitive advantageor a comparative advantage, I think was the comment he made, and I
would like to know, Mr. Leary, would you respond to that? Have
you seen a comparative advantage on the part of those commercial
entities that own ILCs that are not supervised by the Fed or somebody else to those other ILCs? Do you see a comparative advantage
there?
And, second, the question for the OTS, the Utah department regulates 15 institutions that have a commercial owner, a commercial
affiliation. OTS regulates literally hundreds of thrifts that have
commercial affiliates, and I would like to know what the OTS experience is, whether there is, again, some kind of comparative advantage here.
Those are my two.
Mr. LEARY. Senator, with respect to the non-financially owned
ILCs, I have one exception I have to declare so it makes sense. GE,
while it is a non-financial parent, has OTS supervision at this current point in time. The other banks that we have that are commercially owned are, for the most part, smaller and I do not think their
operations constitute any kind of breach of a competition, ethic, or
whatever in that area.
I mentioned two of them being the automobile makers; Target
Bank is a very small bank, established simply to provide for a business card for foundations and nonprofits that want to buy product
or services at Target.
Mr. POLAKOFF. Senator, in reference to the OTS, I do not believe
we have hundreds of entities that have commercial relationships,
but of the ones that we do have commercial relationships, the prudential supervision from the savings and loan holding company
level and the FSB level and our ability to properly examine the
regulator, deal with the functional regulator at the affiliate level
causes these institutions to operate in a safe and sound manner.
Senator BENNETT. So you see no particular difference.
Mr. POLAKOFF. From my perspective, within OTS they are all
under the OTS umbrella. So from our perspective, we have the
ability to examine or to work with the functional regulator.
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Senator BENNETT. Good. Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Bennett.
Senator Reed is recognized for 3 minutes.
Senator REED. Mr. Leary, a deposit-taking ILC in your town
must have FDIC insurance, according to State law?
Mr. LEARY. Yes.
Senator REED. OK. And in other jurisdictions would it be possibleI go back to the Federal regulators. It would be possible to
create an ILC charter with or without FDIC insurance. You know,
a State could try to seize on this approach, to create an industrial
loan company, and then
Mr. ALVAREZ. There are only a certain number of States, a small
number of States that are grandfathered under the Bank Holding
Company Act. So if a new State were to charter an ILC
Senator REED. They would have to Federal authority.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Right.
Senator REED. If there is a conflict between FDIC regulation and
Utah regulation of an FDIC-insured institution, does the FDIC
trump the State of Utah?
Mr. BOVENZI. Well, we have a working relationship where we
work closely together, and to the extent differences arise, we have
been able to work them out successfully. But, for the most part,
they dont arise.
Senator REED. If they did arise, though, is it clear to you that
you could insist upon as an insurer that your policy, what you
are
Mr. BOVENZI. We certainly have the ability to operate independently and go forward with our own actions if we determined that
were necessary.
Senator REED. The point I am trying to get at is, you know,
again, Mr. Learys department is very serious, very conscientious,
but that is not every State, and there are several other States that
are grandfathered, and also it could change with different personalities and different policies. But this area is one that is yet to be
tested, I would assume, Mr. Bovenzi, in terms of, you know, what
you could effectively do to object to a State policy that you thought
was wrong. Is that correct?
Mr. BOVENZI. Well, no. We are the primarywe are the Federal
supervisor for ILCs, and we can take actions if we deem that is appropriate.
Senator REED. Excuse me, I do not want to be preemptive, but
my time has expired. Just a final point. Your whole basis, I presume, is safety and soundness of the institution and functions that
are permissible for a regulated institution. It does not go to the policy issue of whether collectively these organizations make sense in
our economy. Is that a fair statement?
Mr. BOVENZI. That is a fair statement, that Congress should determine the appropriate role for ILCs.
Senator REED. So all of your comments today as regulators have
been, you know, your focus is safety and soundness and permissible
activities. If the activities are permissible and the institution is
safe and sound, then you have no authority to say you cannot do
that, I do not like that, it represents a trend that we do not approve of. Again, I do not want to put words in your mouth, but is
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that a fair summary? Mr. Alvarez, quickly, because I am abusing
my time.
Mr. ALVAREZ. Yes, that is, but that is why we are here to point
this out to you.
Senator REED. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Senator Reed, and thank you all
very much, the whole panel, for joining us. A special thanks, Mr.
Leary, for coming from Salt Lake. Thank you.
I want to call up the second panel of witnesses.
Thank you all for joining us.
Edward Yingling has been the President and CEO of the American Bankers Association since 2005, following two decades of work
at the ABA, where he was responsible for legislative, legal, regulatory, tax and policy development activities. Prior to joining ABA,
Mr. Yingling worked for 12 years as an attorney in private practice
in Washington. He graduated from Princeton in 1970 with a degree
in politics and earned his law degree in 1973 from Stanford.
Marc Lackritz is President and CEO of the Securities Industry
and Financial Markets Association. He has been President of the
Securities Industry Association since 1992 and continued in that
role through the 2006 merger of the SIA with the Bond Market Association. Previously, he has worked as a partner with the law firm
of Wald, Harkrader and Ross. He earned a public policy degree
from Princeton and earned degrees from Harvard and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Peter Wallison holds the Arthur Burns Chair in Financial Policy
Studies as a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He has
worked as counsel to both the Ford and Reagan Administrations as
General Counsel in the U.S. Treasury Department from 1981 to
1985. Mr. Wallison was a partner in the law firm Gibson, Dunn,
and Crutcher in Washington, D.C. prior to joining the AEI. He
graduated from Harvard in 1963 and earned a law degree from the
same school in 1966.
Arthur Wilmarth is a Professor of Law at GW Law School. He
has published numerous articles, coauthored a book on corporate
law. He is a member of the International Editorial Board of the
Journal of Banking Regulation. Prior to joining the GW faculty in
1986, Professor Wilmarth worked as a partner at the Jones, Day,
Reavis & Pogue law firm in Washington, although it is Clevelandbased, I might add. He has had over a decade of experience in private practice. He earned his BA at Yale and law degree at Harvard.
Brigid Kelly is the Director of Politics and Communication at the
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1099 in Cincinnati.
She is a Council Member in the suburb of Norwood, near Cincinnati. She graduated from Xavier with a BS in Business Administration.
J.J. Singh is Chairman, President and CEO of United Transportation Alliance. Mr. Singh has also worked for Canada-based Imperial Oil Limited and C.H. Robinson Company in Minneapolis,
served as President of T-Chek Systems. Mr. Singh holds a masters
degree in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary in
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Alberta and a masters degree in business administration and finance from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Mr. Yingling, please keep comments to 5 minutes and your entire
written statement, of course, will be included in the record. Mr.
Yingling.
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The rigidity of this structure explains, in part, why it took so
long for the Japanese economy to recover after its bubble burst in
the early 1990s. The intertwined relationships between banking
and commercial firms subverted corporate governance and resulted
in poor business and financial decisions.
Contrast that to the banking system we have in the U.S. Our
mixture of numerous banks of varying sizes provides flexibility and
options for customers. Our diverse banking system is vital to the
growth of our economy, particularly with respect to new and small
businesses. In the long run, if commercial firms are allowed to own
banks, our unique system could become highly concentrated and
rigid. For very good reasons, Congress has repeatedly and consistently taken steps to maintain the separation between banking and
commerce.
We stand ready to work with this Committee and the Congress
to enact legislation that would maintain this separation.
Thank you.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Yingling.
Mr. Lackritz, welcome.
STATEMENT OF MARC LACKRITZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SECURITIES INDUSTRY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS ASSOCIATION
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We support the ability of regulated securities firms to continue
to own industrial banks, just as they do under existing law. Federally insured industrial banks are subject to State banking supervision, FDIC oversight, and all banking laws governing relevant
banking activities. Most importantly, the FDIC has authority to examine the affairs of any affiliate of any depository institution, including its parent company. The FDICs regulation of industrial
banks has proven safe and effective, to quote the FDA in a different context.
Industrial banks do not pose any greater safety and soundness
risks than other charter types and should not be subject to additional constraints beyond those imposed on other FDIC-insured institutions.
Securities firms broker-dealer affiliates are regulated by the
SEC, as we heard on the earlier panel. And all the SIFMA member
securities firms with industrial bank subsidiaries have elected
more comprehensive enterprise-wide regulation by the SECthe
consolidated supervised entities that Mr. Sirri testified about beforeacting as a consolidated supervisor. The SECs jurisdiction
does not limit the concurrent authority of the bank regulators in
any way. Most of the SIFMA member securities firms that own
these banks also own savings institutions and are regulated at the
holding company level as savings and loan holding companies by
the OTS.
The SEC established its CSE framework back in 2004, in part to
allow our major global institutions doing business in the EU to
comply with its Financial Conglomerates Directive. That directive
requires that non-EU firms doing business in Europe demonstrate
that they are subject to a form of consolidated supervision by their
home regulator that is equivalent to that required of their European counterparts.
The GAO found, in its report on CSEs, that the Federal Reserve,
the OTS, and the SEC were generally meeting criteria for comprehensive consolidated supervision. We completely agree that the
CSE regime is both robust and comprehensive. Importantly, the
SECs oversight in the CSE regime, just like the Federal Reserves
oversight of banking holding companies, meets the EUs equivalency standard. In addition, the SECs consolidated regulation
standards closely parallel the Fed standards to assess whether a
foreign regulatory regime qualifies as a consolidated regulator for
a foreign bank operating in the United States.
We strongly believe that SIFMA members that own industrial
banks and are subject to consolidated regulation by the SEC should
not be subject to additional holding company oversight. The SEC
is recognized worldwide as a consolidated regulator and its regulatory requirements and procedures were carefully designed to comply with all standards for effective consolidated regulation in the
United States and abroad. That statute should be recognized in
order to ensure that global securities firms are not damaged inadvertently.
Over the last two decades, capital markets and the financial
services industry have truly become global, integrated, and interconnected. As capital markets and financial products continue to
evolve, so too must our Nations regulatory structure. We need a
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regulatory regime that is capable of keeping pace with rapid
globalization, technological transformations, and dynamic market
changes. That is why we are working to develop a long-term strategy of seeking to modernize, harmonize and rationalize financial
services regulation. We note that the U.S. Treasury and other financial services groups have similar projects underway.
Mr. Chairman, we look forward to working with all the interested parties, the financial market participants, regulators, other
trade groups, and legislators to ensure a modern, innovative, and
globally responsive regulatory structure.
Thank you very much.
Senator BROWN. Mr. Lackritz, thank you.
Mr. Wilmarth.
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ILCs and those that do not. It will put great pressure on those that
do not to obtain ILCs in order to compete.
Ownership of a large ILC by a giant commercial firm would place
great pressure on Federal regulators to provide financial support if
either the ILC or its parent company was threatened with failure.
If anyone doubts the importance and potential value of the Federal
safety net, just look at what happened when the credit markets cut
off credit to subprime lenders. Non-depository lenders who did not
have access to the credit markets rapidly went out of business.
Northern Rock survived only because the UK authorities gave a deposit guarantee and provided liquidity support. Countrywide, in my
view, survived only because it could draw upon funding from its
Federal thrift subsidiary in the Federal Home Loan Bank system.
That, to me, proves in spades what the Federal safety net means.
These organizations are also subject to important conflicts of interest. As our history has shown, and I pointed out in my testimony, and as the history of other countries, including Japan, South
Korea, and Mexico shows, there are grave risks involving preferential transfers of funds between banks and commercial affiliates.
Now you have heard, of course, that legal restrictions on those
affiliate and insider transactions exist. However, they have often
proven to be unreliable during times of financial stress. Many
thrifts and many banks that failed during the 1980s and 1990s
were found to have violated restrictions on affiliate transactions
and insider transactions. I pointed out Lincoln Savings being one
of the most notable of these examples.
Moreover, the Federal regulators themselves may feel compelled
to waive these restrictions under times of financial stress. After the
9/11 crisis and during the recent subprime crisis, the Federal Reserve Board granted waivers that allowed major banks to transfer
funds to their securities broker-dealers in excess of Section 23A
limits. Thus, what you have heard as legal firewalls tend to break
down the time gets tough and they are really under severe pressure because the regulators will opt for financial stability.
The Bank of England tried to say we are not going to support
moral hazard by helping mortgage lenders. But when Northern
Rock experienced a bank run, they decided they better step in and
support it, moral hazard or not.
As to the third question, I think it is clear from the previous
panel that the FDIC does not have adequate supervisory powers
over commercial owners of ILCs. They clearly do not have a full
power to examine the commercial parent company and they do not
have the authority to impose capital requirements on either the
parent company or non-bank affiliates of the parent company.
The question then would be well, should you then give the FDIC
consolidated supervision over commercial parent companies? In my
view, that would be an equally bad move because look at the results. First of all, the FDIC would have a tremendous increase in
the supervisory burden. They would have to hire new personnel
who were familiar with many different areas of our economy.
More importantly, in my opinion, the FDICs designation as consolidated supervisor would have the undesirable effect of implying
that the Federal Government is now monitoring and assuring the
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overall solvency and stability of every commercial firm that owns
an ILC. That would certainly lead the market to believe that the
Federal Government would help commercial parents if they got in
difficulty.
Moreover, it would greatly increase the intrusion of Federal regulation into our commercial sector. Certainly, I think if you begin to
have the FDIC supervising people like Home Depot and Wal-Mart,
one can only imagine the interference with the ordinary market dynamics of our U.S. economy. So consolidated supervision is not the
answer. It is not going to solve the problems created by commercial
ownership of ILCs.
I also believe that major commercial firms that acquire ILCs are
likely to use political influence to obtain subsidies or forbearance
from regulators. Certainly, big banks have proven to be both too
big to fail and too big to discipline adequately in the past. I could
give examples, if you would like to hear them.
But let me point to the FDICs decision in 2006 to waive its ILC
moratorium and to improve GMs sale of control of GMAC and its
ILC subsidiary.
Senator BROWN. Please summarize, please.
Mr. WILMARTH. I am sorry, my clock was not working. May I just
complete this point?
Senator BROWN. Yes.
Mr. WILMARTH. They basically granted that waiver because they
felt that GM had to have that transaction. They had to be able to
sell the ILC majority control in order to get funding that GM badly
needed.
If they would do it for GM, they would waive their own moratorium, I think that suggests what would happen if major commercial owners get into difficulty and the Federal regulators are faced
with either supporting this ability of the owner or enforcing their
regulations.
In my view, Congress made exactly the right choice in 1956,
1970, 1987, and 1999 when it prohibited commercial ownership of
FDIC-insured depository institutions. I think it is now time for
Congress to do the same thing with regard to ILCs.
Thank you very much, and I appreciate your attention.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Wilmarth.
Mr. Wallison, welcome.
Mr. WALLISON. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, and
the members of this Committee, for the opportunity to appear before you and discuss the issue of industrial loan companies and
ILCs.
Those who want to change the current law argue that allowing
non-financial companies to acquire ILCs violates the policy of separating banking and commerce. In my prepared testimony, I reviewed the underlying arguments for this policy and tried to show
that the separation idea no longer has any rational basis. Instead,
the policy now serves principally to protect the banking industry
against competitive entry and to deprive consumers of the benefits
that would flow from allowing non-financial firms to gain access to
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the functions that are currently available now only to insured
banks.
As I noted in my prepared testimony, by authorizing securities
firms to acquire banks, and vice versa, in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act Congress had to conclude that no harm to an affiliated bank
would result from this relationship. The essential point here is that
there is no real difference between banks being owned by say securities firms, which is permissible of course under the GrammLeach-Bliley Act, and banks being owned by commercial firms. In
both cases, all of the dangers cited by the proponents of separating
banking and commerce could occur.
Securities firms, for example, which are heavy users of credit,
could lend preferentially to a securities affiliate. That is, a bank
that had an affiliate that was a securities firm could lend preferentially to that securities affiliate. It could refuse to lend to competitors of the affiliate. That is the conflict of interest argument that
is made. And it could be overreached and forced to lend to a weak
securities affiliate or other parent which could not get credit elsewhere. All those things are possible now under the Gramm-LeachBliley Act.
However, even those these things are possible, Congress made no
special provision to prevent them when it passed the GrammLeach-Bliley Act. It follows that Congress must have concluded
that the harms supposedly associated with banks being acquired by
commercial firms are exaggerated or non-existent. This is probably
because all of the acts that I have described and all of the acts that
have been alleged by people on this panel and on others would be
violations of banking law and regulations. And if they occurred,
would subject the officials who approved these actions to criminal
liability and personal penaltiespersonal penaltiesof up to $1
million per day.
Under these circumstances, it is fanciful, I think, to believe that
banks or ILCs, which are both carefully examined and supervised,
would do the things that are alleged by those who claim that the
policy of separating banking and commerce should continue in force
and be applied to ILCs.
Not only are there no sound policy reasons for applying the separation in banking and commerce to ILCs, but doing so would cause
harm to consumers and working families. Companies that sell
goods and services to the public, retailers, auto companies, others,
can save significant cost by gaining access to the payment system
through an affiliated depository institution such as an ILC. In todays price competitive world, these savings are passed on to consumers. To the extent that commercial firms are denied this opportunity, consumers and working families are the losers.
In addition, prohibiting commercial firms from acquiring banks
and ILCs deprives the banking industry of capital, innovation, and
the competitive entry that will improve services and reduce costs.
So if the separation of banking and commerce has no sound policy basis and hurts consumers and working families, why is it still
around? One reason is Oliver Wendell Holmes observation that a
good catchword can obscure analysis for 50 years. When it was first
adopted, the policy had some justification. Banks could not compete
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easily across State lines and access to bank credit was crucial to
the success of a business and to personal well-being.
But 50 years later, since the liberalization of banking laws in the
1980s and 1990s, these arguments no longer have merit. Credit is
now widely available from securities firms and finance companies
as well a banks, and banks are competing aggressively for customers. But unfortunately, like many outmoded policies that are
not reconsidered, this one protects the banking industry from competition despite statements in Congress about a desire to help consumers and working families. Indeed, it took 66 years to eliminate
the Glass-Steagall Act, which protected the securities industry
from bank competition and also had no sound policy justification.
For these reasons, Congress should leave the current law on
ILCs unchanged. Holding open this opportunity for financial firms
to combine with insured depository institutions will be an important and useful experiment. Congress can watch how this structure
works, see the benefits it will provide to consumers, and determine
whether any of the supposed dangers actually arise. In the end, I
am confident that Congress will find that the great hue and cry
stirred up about ILCs was wholly unnecessary.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator BROWN. Thank you very much, Mr. Wallison.
Ms. Kelly.
Ms. KELLY. Thank you, Senator Brown, and thank you, Senator
Bennett, for holding this hearing and for the opportunity to testify
here today. I am here representing the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, UFCW, and Local 1099, which
represents the great States of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Local
1099 represents almost 20,000 members and UFCW represents
more than 1.3 million. We represent workers in every State and
are the largest private sector union in North America.
I am proud to represent UFCW and our members in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky to discuss the important issue of regulating industrial loan companies. I am especially proud to represent Ohio,
home of the late U.S. Representative Paul Gillmor. Representative
Gillmor was the original cosponsor of the Gillmor-Frank ILC legislation in the House, and I am pleased to be here to carry on the
Ohio tradition of fighting to close the ILC loophole and keep banking and commerce separate.
UFCW recognized the problems with the ILC loophole years ago
and our union was one of the founding members of a diverse group
of organizations known as the Sound Banking Coalition. In addition to the UFCW, the members of the coalition include the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Association
of Convenience Stores, and the National Grocers Association.
Together with the members of the Sound Banking Coalition,
UFCW has analyzed ILCs, their growth, their regulation, and their
use by commercial entities. We are concerned that ILCs and their
parent companies are not subjected to consolidated supervision by
the Federal Reserve Board at the holding company level. This is
troubling because we have seen many bank failures in the past.
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And when banks fail, people get hurt, and we all end up paying
in one way or another.
The savings of real people and real businesses are in these institutions and it is appropriate that we take seriously our obligation
to protect peoples money.
As we have learned over the course of the past century, we are
far better off with prudent financial oversight of the entire bank
holding company, enabling a strong regulatory agency to understand the institution and address any problems before they become
too big to solve.
If I may take a few minutes to talk about our situation in Ohio,
Ohio does not have an ILC charter, but we do allow banks from
other States to branch into Ohio, including ILCs. Some States, including Kentucky, have passed legislation taking different approaches to stop ILCs from branching into their States, but Ohio
has not. We need Congress to act so an ILC from another State
with inadequate holding company regulation may not branch into
Ohio.
The Sound Banking Coalition is united in support for separating
banking and commerce. Separation of the financial from the commercial spheres has proven to be sound economic policy. Banks are
supposed to be neutral arbiters of capital, providing financing to
customers on an unbiased basis, unencumbered by commercial selfinterest and competition. If those banks are owned by commercial
companies, the conflicts of interest can skew loan decisions and
lead to systemic problems.
Imagine, local businesses having no alternative but to go to a
bank owned by a competitor for a loan. This conflict of interest
could force local retailers to essentially provide their business plans
to their competition.
This is a large part of the reason why Wal-Marts attempt to buy
an ILC was such a threat. We have watched Wal-Mart come into
town after town and decimate Main Street business by business.
Studies have documented the impact on employment, wages, benefits, and tax revenue. If Wal-Mart had secured its bank and turned
its standard slash and burn tactic against local banks, its economic
control in these small communities would have been almost complete.
Despite its withdrawal from the ILC market, Wal-Mart continues
to loom large over the ILC debate. Although we are pleased the
company withdrew its ILC application, its bid for a bank put the
spotlight on ILCs in general, and on the separation of banking and
commerce specifically. It is absolutely certain that if the company
had secured a bank through a loophole in the law, the ILC loophole
would have been larger than the law. And quite frankly, we do not
believe that Wal-Mart has permanently given up going into the
banking industry.
Even with Wal-Mart, there are now a record number of commercial companies applying for ILC charters: BlueCross Blueshield,
Home Depot, Berkshire Hathaway, these and more have followed
Wal-Marts lead thus far. While some applications have been withdrawn, it is clear that there is unprecedented interest in this charter from commercial companies.
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The FDIC has extended its moratorium, as referred today, on
ILC applications submitted by commercial entities. The moratorium will not last forever, and in the meantime fundamental policy
decisions must be made. These decisions are beyond the scope of
the FDICs authority and they are too important to be left to a single State.
We believe the Senate must now act for all these reasons. We believe the Senate must follow the House and pass legislation. As you
know, the House passed ILC legislation with an overwhelming vote
of 371 to 16.
We look forward to working with every member of this Committee and the Senate to move this legislation. I urge you to consider addressing these problems and challenges that I have outlined today.
Thank you again for your time, and I will be happy to answer
any questions that you may have.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Ms. Kelly.
Mr. Singh.
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the communities in this country. It has a revenue about $625 billion and contributes about 5 percent to the gross domestic product
of this country.
If you look at this sector you will find, and this is from the U.S.
Department of Transportation, 91 percent of motor carriers have 20
or fewer trucks. In essence, these are small business owners. I am
not here to talk about large trucking companies. This segment,
which is less than 20 trucks, is really the wellspring from which
the future entrepreneurs, the larger entrepreneurs in trucking
emerge from. That is the focus of Transportation Alliance Bank.
Now why do we think we are better than others in this niche
market? The fact is, we understand the business. We understand
the business risks inherent there. And we know how to mitigate
those risks and work with those clients to provide them services in
a profitable manner, in a safe and sound manner, and meeting all
of the laws of the land. I will touch on those in a moment.
This is what, about 15 years ago, the CEO of Flying J recognized,
that these small owner-operators actually were undercapitalized in
the liquidity issues. And that was basically the rationale for us to
look at getting into the banking business. The only charter that
would allow us to do that was the ILC charter in the home State
of Utah.
We have hundreds of customers, most of them small. And as it
may seem contrived or coincidental, but the example I am going to
present here is from the state of Ohio. A gentleman by the name
of Gregory Arthur, 4 years ago he came to us after talking to mainstream banks, looking for a loan for a truck. Our loan officer sat
down with him and actually provided him with a loan after we felt
he had a sound plan. He is still a customer 4 years later. He does
revenues of about $500,000 today, and frankly, is a contributing
entity to business in this country.
There are hundreds of examples I can give you on that score.
Thanks to the industrial bank charter, Transportation Alliance
Bank has been in business for about 9 years. It currently has assets of about $500 million and provides a host of services to the
trucking industry. It makes CRA investments into local community
and its efforts are rated highly by the regulators. It is a very safe
and sound bank, serving primarily the needs of the segment that
I was talking about.
I contend, as I talk to my peers, that this is also true for other
industrial banks in Utah, which are demonstrably among the
strongest and the safest banks in the Nation, and have been for
some time. That has been talked by Commissioner Leary, so I will
not spend much time on that. But I should mention that these
banks do business not in Utah, a robust economy. But most of their
business is done in the other States.
Based on my experience, there is no deficiency in the regulation
of these banks or their holding companies. The regulation of industrial banks is equal to and, in some respects, stronger than the regulation of other depository institutions. There is also extensive effective regulation of the holding companies and affiliates. I have
gone through about four or five safety and soundness audits. In
each one of those audits, the FDIC auditors and the State auditors
have asked me for information on financial companies business
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about my parent corporation. As a matter of fact, in about 3 weeks
the State regulators have invited FDIC to do an audit of the holding company, Flying J, Inc. We are pleased to have the regulators
there to do that. As a matter of fact, we welcome them and we have
no issues when the regulators contacted us to actually do an audit
where the auditors have spent 2 to 3 weeks at our holding company.
So when I hear that there is no regulation of holding companies,
I find it rather surprising.
Nor is it the case that traditional holding company regulation
provides better protection for a bank subsidiary. As a matter of
fact, my views to the contrary. Large diversified holding companies
have better financial strength to support the banks that have the
industrial loan charters. In my experience, I have never had the
issue of not getting financing when I have needed it from my parent. And as I talk to my peers, that seems to be the case. And in
some cases, there are specific commitments that the holding companies made as part of the completion of the application process to
protect the bank.
Senator BROWN. Mr. Singh, please summarize, if you could.
Thank you.
Mr. SINGH. There is one point I would like to make, Mr. Chairman, and this is important, mixing of commerce and banking. 23A
and 23B provides us with the regulatory regime to do that, and
that is pretty vigorously implemented by the regulators when they
do audit us.
In conclusion, if you peel away all of the political rhetoric, the
real issue regarding industrial banks is whether the large number
of competent and legitimate businesses in our Nation that offer
bank quality products and services will be allowed to operate in the
most efficient and profitable manner, providing superior value to
its customers in a safe and sound manner. That is really the whole
issue.
With that, I close and will be glad to answer any questions that
you may have.
Senator BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Singh.
Mr. Wallison, I ask your permission to steal your Oliver Wendell
Holmes quote and request that you never use it when speaking in
Ohio, if that would be OK.
[Laughter.]
Senator Bennett will begin the questions, his 5 minutes. I am
going to slip out just for a moment. I have some students from
Ohio here I need to see, but will return as his questioning is going
on.
Thank you.
Senator BENNETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I used to own a business in Japan. I know a little bit about the
Japanese banking system and the Japanese pattern of supporting
entrepreneurial activities. I reject the idea that the Japanese model
is in any way illustrative of what we are talking about here.
Mr. Wilmarth, you talk about GMAC. That is an example of the
regulators giving into political pressure when GM sold that, and
that that is a sample of what is going to happen.
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Mr. WILMARTH. I did not say they gave in to political pressure.
I think they felt that they were under considerable pressure to help
a major corporation get out of a very difficult box. And they were
willing to waive their rules to help them do that.
Senator BENNETT. Do you see that as a bad thing? That they
were willing to allow a corporation to sell a profitable asset to take
care of shortfalls in their own situation? The sale was not detrimental, in any way, to the marketplace. The sale did not put any
assets at risk. The sale did not create any safety and soundness
problem. All it did was say GM, you have got a problem. You have
got a profitable asset that you want to sell, and we are going to
let you sell it.
How does that have anything to do with what we are talking
about here?
Mr. WILMARTH. My point was a broader one, which is that Federal regulators are willing to bend their rules and established policies when they are faced with significant problems that could affect
financial stability. I actually gave three examples. One was
Senator BENNETT. Wait a minute. You say they are willing to
bend their rules
Mr. WILMARTH. Yes.
Senator BENNETT [continuing]. When they are faced with a safety and soundness challenge. This was not a safety and soundness
challenge in any way. This was General Motors having liquidity
problems.
Mr. WILMARTH. Well, with all respect, it was a safety and soundness problem to General Motors, the parent.
Senator BENNETT. All right. Does that mean that their ownership
of the ILC was a risk? Their ownership of the ILC was a benefit.
Mr. WILMARTH. Well, let me give the other two examples: the
Federal Reserve waiving Section 23A to let banks help out their securities affiliates when they were under considerable stress; and
the Bank of England deciding to drop its distaste for moral hazard
when it had a bank run facing it.
Senator BENNETT. I do not think we need worry about the Bank
of England.
Mr. WILMARTH. Well, we have done the same thing in this country, as well.
Senator BENNETT. Mr. Wallison pointed out that the kinds of
things you were talking about are perfectly available now throughout the entire financial securities industry. So why do we say it is
terrible that a major national commercial firm, with tremendous financial resources, will be treated differently than a financial services firm whose resources may not be as great? Why is that a
greaterI cannot fathom why that is a greater risk systemically to
the American economy than what we are talking about here.
Mr. WILMARTH. My concern is how far do we spread the Federal
safety net? I think everyone now is seeming to say, which I regret
I felt at the time of Gramm-Leach-Bliley, we now seem to have
spread the Federal safety net to embrace entire financial conglomerates, not just banks.
Senator BENNETT. Are you suggesting that by owning that ILC,
General Motors had access to FDIC deposits?
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Mr. WILMARTH. They certainly had access to FDIC deposits. Look
at
Senator BENNETT. For General Motors purposes?
Mr. WILMARTH. Merrill Lynch, for example, has gained $70 billion of deposits and they have said publicly that this is the best
funding source they have ever found. It is a much cheaper funding
source than when they used to have to go to the financial markets
and sell commercial paper.
The question is how large do these ILCs become? If every commercial organization held an ILC the size of Merrill Lynch, yes, I
think you would see quite a bit of subsidization, in my opinion.
Senator BENNETT. And yet, even the legislation passed by the
House would allow Merrill Lynch to continue to own that ILC. So
the example you have given us as typical of the kind of threat we
are facing, is an example that the proposed legislation continues.
Mr. WILMARTH. Again, the question is do you want to extend the
Federal safety net beyond the financial sector into the entire commercial sector. That is, I believe, what is now at stake.
Senator BENNETT. Well, I obviously have problems with your testimony and I am glad Mr. Wallison followed you immediately, because we have a pretty clear clash here between the two.
I probably ought to calm down, Mr. Chairman, so I will quit
there.
Senator BROWN. Darn, I wish I had watched that, Senator Bennett.
[Laughter.]
Thank you.
Mr. Yingling, Mr. Wallisons comments about competition were
interesting, I thought. And while you may not have as good a quote
as he did on Oliver Wendell Holmes, tell me why he is wrong about
the banking? I have been here now, I have been on this Committee
for I guess 9 months. I have been perhaps not amazed, but certainly intrigued by the number of actors in the financial services
business, from non-bank lenders to the Farm Credit System, credit
unions, traditional banks, payday lenders, the Government itself,
in all kinds of competition.
Tell me why he isexpand on that, why he is wrong about the
whole point of this is anticompetitive.
Mr. YINGLING. Well, I think it is quite clear that we have a very,
very competitive financial system with lots and lots of players, as
you are pointing out. I think theory would tell you that more players means more competition. So the question has to be what are
the other public policy issues that are inherent in adding maybe
more marginal competition. I do not think it is an area that lacks
plenty of competition right now.
And I think the basic public policy issue is that if the Congress
does not act fairly soon, the ILC provision could become a vehicle
that results in a major change in the structure of our financial system. So that, at the risk of Senator Bennett calling me Chicken Little, I will say that you could see a situation 10 or 20 years from
now where we have a very different financial system in which you
have industrial companies, commercial companies with banks embedded in them that dominate the financial system. And I think
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that raises some very serious questions about how lending might
take place, about the ability to have a very flexible system.
I do think that, with respect to some countries, we have seen
that a financial system dominated by big conglomerates lacks flexibility. That may affect the ability to lend to smaller companies.
And it also may mean when you have a problem, it is more difficult
to get out of it.
One of the great things we see in our financial system, because
of its flexibility, is we are able to get out of problems more quickly
than some countries. I think hopefully, in the problem that we
have right now that this Committee is so concerned about with
subprime lending, we find that the commercial banking system and
the savings institutions in this country are in a position now to
step back in and help lend to people that need the housing loans.
Senator BROWN. Thank you.
Ms. Kelly, some have argued that this whole issue is about WalMart. Since they have withdrawn their application, is there a reason to move forward? If you substitute some other big retailers
name, is that then a problem?
Ms. KELLY. I would say that regardless of whose name is on the
outside of the building, if you have a large retailer who is coming
in to try and, you know, just add banking sort of as another product line, that it is a problem.
Working people are concerned about their money. I mean, even
though some of our members make minimum wage, they are concerned about where their money goes. But if you have a company
that comes into a town, specifically a small town, and takes over
the hardware store and the florist and the bakery and the grocery
store, and then they have to be your bank, too, that is a problem
for us, whether it is Wal-Mart or another large retailer.
I think that the primary problem is a separation of banking and
commerce. I mean, that is a fundamental problem, regardless of
whose name is on the outside of the big box.
Senator BROWN. Thank you.
Mr. Lackritz, I do not think anybody is arguing for duplicative
regulation, just one regulator. Since that is absent in the case of
commercial parents of ILCs, shouldnt we close that loophole?
Mr. LACKRITZ. Well, I think, from the standpoint of addressing
that, we would notwe do not need to reach that question because
in the situation that we are talking about, we are talking about
broker-dealers, who are basically financial in nature to begin with.
And the question there is making sure that we do not have overlapping, duplicative, or redundant regulation along the way. So
that the consolidated supervised entity regime that the SEC has
put in place, for those five large global institutions, really serves
as a very good oversight from the standpoint of the same kinds of
concerns that have been raised with respect to oversight of financial services holding companies and bank holding companies, as
well.
So with respect to the commercially owned situation, we do not
need to get that far because we have really got a regime now that
actually works extremely well and has been very innovative from
the standpoint of the SEC and sort of our global competitors.
Senator BROWN. Thank you.
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Thank you all, both the first panel and the second panel. And
thank you, the two of you, for coming a little further, from Cincinnati and from Utah, to join us.
Senator Bennett, thank you for your passion and your comments.
The Committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:27 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Prepared statements, responses to written questions, and additional material supplied for the record follow:]
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CHRISTOPHER J. DODD
I want to thank Senator Brown for chairing todays hearing and thank Ranking
Member Shelby for his cooperation in putting this hearing together, as well.
Industrial loan companies, or ILCs, are state-chartered and state-regulated depository institutions regulated primarily by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC). They enjoy a unique status within Americas financial services landscape,
the result of the Competitive Equality Banking Act (CEBA) of 1987. ILCs can engage in most banking activities under specific state laws and are eligible for FDIC
insurance, but are designated non-banks exempt from the statutory, and supervisory, framework of the Bank Holding Company Act, which restricts the mixing of
banking and commercial activities for bank holding companies and their affiliates.
In recent years, we have witnessed a significant increase in the size and number
of ILCs, and applications to acquire ILCs being filed with the FDIC, leading to increased focus on the ILC charter and regulatory structure. Most recently, Wal-Mart,
Home Depot, and several other large commercial firms applied to the FDIC for the
right to acquire ILCs. The Wal-Mart application, in particular, triggered fierce opposition on various grounds from an array of interest groups, resulting in thousands
of comment letters being filed with the FDIC.
The public and congressional opposition to the Wal-Mart application led the FDIC
to impose a six-month moratorium on ILC applications. The agency decided to extend that moratorium an additional year, through January 31, 2008, though applied
solely to application for ILCs to be owned or controlled by commercial firms. In extending the moratorium the FDIC sought to allow Congress to consider, and ultimately decide upon, the public policy question brought about by the Wal-Mart application, including the public policy implications of the mixing of banking and commerce as it relates to ILC ownership by commercial firms.
Todays hearing provides the Committee with an important opportunity to hear
from a broad spectrum of stakeholders on all sides of the ILC debateregulators,
industry representatives, academics and concerned citizens. It is my hope that Committee members will come away from this hearing with a better understanding of
the regulation and supervision of ILCs; a historical perspective on the evolution of
the ILC structure; an understanding of the public policy concerns related to the mixing of banking and commerce and commercial ILC ownership; and an awareness of
the arguments in favor of and in opposition to such combining. Most importantly,
Committee members will hear a wide array of views from our witnesses on ways
to enhance, strengthen or reform the ILC charter.
I want to again thank Senator Brown for chairing todays hearing. And I extend
my thanks to all of the witnesses for taking the time to come before the Committee
today on this timely issue. I look forward to reviewing the witness testimony, and
the hearing transcript, and working with my Committee colleagues moving forward
towards a process that I hope will result in bipartisan ILC legislation moving out
of this Committee in the coming weeks.
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And this spring, in the wake of the tremendous growth in industrial loan company
assets since Gramm-Leach-Bliley, almost eightfold, the House adopted Representative Paul Gilmors bill to prevent further commercial acquisitions of ILCs by a vote
of 371 to 16.
The strength of that vote is a small testament to the respect in which Paul was
held, and the skill with which he did his job as a legislator.
Congress lost a real expert in these issues with his passing, and Karen and the
rest of his family and friends lost a good man. I hope we can pick up where he left
off.
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my states communities, the written testimony I provided the FDIC on April 10,
2006 for their hearing on the Proposed Wal-Mart Banks Application for Federal Deposit Insurance, and the GAOs September 2005 study titled Industrial Loan Corporations: Recent Asset Growth and Commercial Interest Highlight Differences in
Regulatory Authority for the record.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR JACK REED
Thank you Chairman Brown and Senator Shelby for holding this hearing on industrial loan companies.
Industrial loan companies, started in the early 1900s, were chartered to make
uncollateralized loans to industrial workers. More recently, the ILC industry has experienced tremendous growth, while growing more complex. During a 20 year period
ending in 2006, ILC assets grew more than 3,900 percent from $3.8 billion to over
$155 billion. While the early ILCs were small and helped to fill underserved areas
of our economy, todays ILCs closely resemble commercial banks in the products and
services offered and are owned by some of the largest U.S. financial companies.
They therefore require the same level of oversight as traditional depository institutions.
A July 12, 2006 GAO report on ILCs outlines a critical area of ILC regulatory
oversight in need of strengthening. According to this GAO report, Although FDIC
has supervisory authority over an insured ILC, this authority does not explicitly extend to ILC holding companies, and therefore, is less extensive than the authority
consolidated supervisors have over bank and thrift holding companies. The report
concludes that . . . from a regulatory standpoint, these ILCs may pose more risk
of loss to the bank insurance fund than other insured depository institutions operating in a holding company. While a history of a healthy and successful ILC industry would indicate that the bank-centric model has worked in the past, the growth
in size and complexity of these institutions is reason enough to address this supervisory blind spot. Furthermore, the FDICs authority has yet to be tested by the parent company of a large, troubled ILC during stressed times.
The mixing of banking and commerce in the United States is a long-standing
issue and, while there have been exceptions, there has been an effort to keep the
two separate. Critics of the idea of mixing banking with nonfinancial entities express a concern that the risks will far outweigh the benefits. These risks include
conflicts of interest; the creation of economic power in banking, which could impair
competition; and an expansion of the federal safety net. Given recent changes in the
ILC industry, we should assess our position on separating banking from commerce
and determine an appropriate tolerance for mixing the two, while not punishing
those that have followed the law to date.
From their early history, ILCs have filled a niche, and the industry has operated
in a safe and sound manner. I look forward to discussing the issues and coming up
with solutions that allow for the ILC industry to continue thriving, while addressing
regulatory gaps. I want to thank the regulators for working together on this issue
and I look forward to your testimony.
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Q.3. Is the key issue in the ILC debate the commercial ownership
of a banking charter or the commercial ownership of a Federallyinsured entity?
A.3. In Utah these key issues are not mutually exclusive. Utah law
requires all depository institutions to be federally insured. For the
purposes of this question, the key issue in the ILC debate on commercial ownership of a Federally-insured, state chartered ILC appears to be an argument against a commercially owned ILC that
has Federal Deposit Insurance. As argued by some, an ILC owned
by a commercial entity may extend the FDIC safety net over not
only the insured depository institutional, but also its commercial
parent and affiliates and their activities. This argument disregards
twenty years of operational experience and existing federal regulations preventing the mixing of banking operations and parent company activities whether commercial or not. Regulation W implements Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act, which imposes quantitative and qualitative limits on the ability of a bank
to extend credit to, or engage in certain other transactions with, an
affiliate. The history of Utah ILCs has been strict compliance with
these provisions.
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Q.1. Is there a tension between our dual banking system and our
desire to ensure a level playing field for all participants? In other
words, in our effort to eliminate competitive inequities, do we run
the risk of stifling both the dual banking system and the innovation that is spawns?
A.1. The issue for the UFCW with respect to ILCs has never been
the question of a level competitive playing field. The UFCW represents more than 1.1 million individual members and their families throughout the nation. UFCW Local 1099 represents almost
20,000 people in Ohio and Kentucky. Our members are consumers
and workers who have a strong interest in the safety and soundness of their banking system and want to ensure that they and
their funds are protected by appropriate regulation.
What is important to UFCW members is less the theory regarding the innovation spawned by the dual banking system, than
about the nuts-and-bolts, nickkel-and-dime impact on Americas
working families. The UFCW favors innovative regulatory protections that states put in placeboth in the banking system and in
other areas of regulation.
However, there must be a basic floor of regulation. The problem
with the ILC system is that ILCs skirt the floor of regulation that
has been put in place to govern all other companies that own
banks. In fact, the ILCs represent a loophole in the dual banking
system or a little known third banking system. This third system
both does away with the necessary safety and soundness regulation
at the holding company level that the Federal Reserve administers
for other state and federal bank holding companies and it allows
for ownership of these banks by commercial companies which is not
allowed for other state and federal banks. For this third system, or
loophole, to be the means through which these significant policy
protections are jettisoned does not make sense.
The real question here, then, is not whether there should be a
single level playing field that does away with the dual banking system but whether we should continue to have a third banking system that only exists in a few states and does so without some of
the most fundamental protections that have made our banking system strong. We believe the current system does not make sense
and that we should have legislation to close the ILC loophole.
Q.2. When the Congress eliminated new nonbank banks and unitary thrift holding companies in the Competitive Equality Banking
Act and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, it permitted many of these entities to remain in existence under grandfather provisions.
If the Congress did prohibit commercial ownership of ILCs based
on safety and soundness concerns, would it not create competitive
inequities to grandfather existing ILCs?
To take just a single example from the automotive industry:
BMW, Volkswagen and Toyota own ILCs; should Chrysler be denied an ILC?
A.2. Grandfathering can create competitive inequities, but this is
often how Congress chooses to make changes like it did in CEBA
and GLBA because ending an ongoing concern is seen as a draco-
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nian response. The best policy from the UFCWs perspective would
be simply to make all ILCs subject to the Bank Holding Company
Act and not worry about grandfathering. At the same time, we recognize that this may be seen as unfair by current ILCs that have
established themselves under the rules that have been in place to
date.
Whether the Committee decides to have a grandfathering provision or not, however, that question should not stop the implementation of necessary reform. The ILC loophole does not make sense
and it puts consumers, businesses, FDIC insurance and the banking system at risk. We have seen an explosion of interest in ILC
charters from commercial companies and the Congresss failure to
act willwithout a doubtresult in additional ILC applications.
Q.3. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act defines activities that are financial in nature. The National Bank Act permits activities that are
part of or incidential to the business of banking. The Fed recently
determined that WellPoints disease management and mail-order
pharmacy activities are complementary to a financial activity. In
attempting to distinguish between banking and commercial activities, where would you draw a line that is both appropriate and consistent with current laws?
A.3. The UFCW has never taken a position on precisely where the
line between commerce and banking should be drawn for the purposes of determining the complementary activities in which banks
should be allowed to engage and we are not ready to do so at this
point. We may differ with the Federal Reserve at times when it
makes individual decisions about permissible complementary activities, but we strongly believe that the Federal Reserve must
make such decisions to avoid the profound problems associated
with the unfettered mixing of banking and commerce. Currently,
there is no check on the degree to which commerce and banking
mix through the use of ILC charters. That is an untenable situation that must end. With that in mind, the UFCW is quite willing
to place the line-drawing authority in the hands of the regulatory
authorities at the Federal Reserve and the FDIC.
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