Subcommittee on Financial
Institutions and Consumer Credit
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CURRENCY Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit |
Marge Roukema, Chairwoman |
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| For Immediate Release: | Contact: David Runkel or |
| Wednesday, September 22, 1999 | Andrew Parmentier (202) 226-0471 |
Marge Roukema, Chairwoman of the Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, today criticized the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Clinton administration for using bank examiners to help compile a list of bankers who would help the White House oppose congressional efforts to limit CRA.
"I am shocked that the White House and the OCC would use 36 of its bank examiners to, in effect, lobby national banks to publicly support CRA," said Roukema. "Senator Gramm is to be commended for exposing this blatant abuse of the bank regulatory process.
"This politicization of the bank examination process is outrageous. This is exactly the type of problem that I am concerned about with the Administration’s operating subsidiary proposal. It should be understood that this politicization is not just about CRA. In the financial modernization bill national bank subsidiaries would get broad new, potentially risky, powers. The OCC would be responsible for approving these new activities.
"The OCC’s independence has clearly been undermined by this episode and calls into question its ability to withstand political pressures.
"I will be scheduling a hearing shortly to examine these problems. A major focus will be to determine whether the OCC and OTS should be made independent from the Treasury Department as are the FDIC, Federal Reserve and the NCUA."
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