Federal Banking Agencies Seek Comment on ‘Outdated, Unnecessary’ Regs (June 5, 2014)
A rare chance to trim back certain redundant financial regulations that seem to spread like ivy has arrived. Several of the nation’s top federal banking agencies this week embarked on their once-a-decade effort to examine the overall array of regulations, seeking comments on those that are “outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome.” The exercise, required by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) of 1996, extends to all regulations issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC and the Federal Reserve.
In a joint notice on June 4, the agencies said their collective regulations are divided into 12 categories, to be released in three more batches at regular intervals over the next two years. The first batch, released this week and published in the Federal Register, covers regulations in the areas of bank mergers, usury laws and international banking operations. Comments on the first set of regulations will close Sept. 2, 2014.
The goal is to identify regulations that are no longer needed, which could result in repealing or amending those rules to simplify policymaking. The agencies said they plan to schedule roundtable discussions with bankers and interested parties, and publish details about these sessions in the EGRPRA Website.
But the agencies’ spring-cleaning doesn’t extend to all agencies that oversee financial services providers. According to this week’s notice, the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 transferred rule-writing authority for federal consumer financial laws to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (with some exceptions); the new agency’s rules are not included in the review, nor are those of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Network.
Comments are invited online via the Federal eRulemaking portal through the EGRPRA’s Website.
