Welcome to the CBA Federal Government Relations section, where you’ll find the latest information on federal banking legislation. In addition, you can find information about federal legislative alerts. Much of the information on this page is available to members only.
Register now to join your California and Florida colleagues for our 15th annual joint visit to Washington, D.C., scheduled for September 26-28, 2017, at the Hay-Adams Hotel. This annual trip to our nation’s capital provides us with an excellent opportunity to come together with the Florida Bankers Association to discuss critical issues impacting our industry with our elected officials and representatives from key regulatory agencies.
The financial regulatory reform issue has moved to the Senate now that the House has passed the Financial Choice Act on a party-line vote. CBA joined 51 other state banking associations in a joint letter to Senate leadership urging support for a regulatory relief bill that is currently in development under the direction of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo and Ranking Member Maxine Waters.
The U.S. Treasury Department has officially issued its 150-page report, making several recommendations for how Congress and the regulatory agencies can streamline bank regulation in a way that promotes economic growth.
In response to a request made by representatives from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) during a recent meeting with CBA’s president and CEO, Simone Lagomarsino, we have shared with the bureau information providing evidence of the shifting marketplace dynamics relative to residential mortgage loan origination and mortgage servicing. The CFPB requested that we share additional data identifying the marketplace trends.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has just issued its new loan loss accounting framework, also known as the current expected credit loss (CECL) model. The new standard is expected to increase the allowance for loan and lease losses throughout the industry. CECL will require significant operational changes at all banks, including collecting and analyzing the type of data that supports the modeling of the life-of-loan loss expectation, as well as forecasting and quantifying losses in the future.
This past November the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) put out a proposal for comment regarding field of membership. This proposal, by NCUA’s own account, is the most sweeping change on membership limitations in the agency’s 45-year history and goes to the basic ability of credit unions to get new customers in the door.
The CBA joined the ABA and state bankers associations as signatories on a letter supporting Senator Richard Shelby’s “Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015.” The associations noted that the ability of our nation’s financial institutions to support the needs of the economy has been limited by regulatory impediments that both restrict the flexibility to serve those needs and tie up substantial internal resources on unnecessary co
Last week the CBA sent a letter to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein urging her to support the Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act (S. 1137), which may come before the Committee on the Judiciary in the next few weeks. Banks of all sizes license innovation and technology to support consumer use, and, as a result, they are frequently targeted by patent trolls. Nationally, banks are now one of the top ten industries targeted by trolls.
CBA President and CEO Rod Brown, Chairman Rick Sanborn, Immediate Past Chairman Jeff Ball and Treasurer Louise Walker, joined nearly 80 bankers and state association executives from across the country, participating in the ABA’s Freshman Fly-In in Washington, D.C. last week. The fly-in is part of an effort to lay the foundation for solid and lasting personal relationships with the 71 new members of Congress and educate them about key banking issues.
Last week, CBA shared with California Rep. Tom McClintock a recently released report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R- Okla.) that highlights and identifies more than $900 billion in giveaways throughout the Internal Revenue Code. In his Tax Decoder report, Sen.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has proposed significant changes to eligibility for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) system. Under the proposed rule, members would be required to hold 1% of assets in home mortgage loans, and they would also be required to have at least 10% of assets in residential mortgage loans on an ongoing basis, not just upon application for membership.
The CBA joined the ABA and state bankers associations as signatories on a letter to Chairman Janet Yellen and the entire board of governors of the Federal Reserve, opposing the views of Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Al Franken (D-MN) who recently called for increased scrutiny on payment card issuing banks and networks.
