25 Financial Services Committee Members Urge FDIC to Wait on Wal-Mart Application

Washington, DC- Today, Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH) and Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) joined with 23 other members of the House Committee on Financial Services in sending a letter to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Acting-Chairman Martin Gruenberg asking that the FDIC delay any further action on the Wal-Mart application for deposit insurance until the vacancy on the FDIC Board of Directors is filled. In the letter, the concerned Committee members also ask the FDIC to hold public hearings on the application due to historic levels of public interest.

The letter to Acting-Chairman Gruenberg is as follows:

Dear Chairman Gruenberg:

As concerned members of the House Committee on Financial Services, we urge the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to defer any decision on the application for federal deposit insurance filed by Wal-Mart Bank until the Board has its full complement of directors. This application is clearly of sufficient importance to require that it be made by the members of the FDIC Board itself and only by a full Board without vacancies. We ask for your commitment that the decision will be deferred at least until the Board is once again at full strength.

On September 23, 2005, Ranking Member Frank and Congressman Gillmor wrote to then-Chairman Powell urging the FDIC to hold public hearings on the application, and we renew that request today. While FDIC regulations in 12 CFR 303.10(c), appear to leave the determination of whether to hold public hearings to the discretion of the regional director, we urge that you exercise your authority as Chairman to require that public hearings be held on the Wal-Mart Bank application. As you know, this application has generated historic levels of interest, with the FDIC receiving more than 1000 written comments. We believe that the extensive number of comments received by the FDIC supports the need for public hearings, rather than be used as a reason why public hearings should not be held. The FDIC regulation states one of the grounds on which to hold public hearings is whether the hearings "would be in the public interest."

Given the reluctance of the FDIC to release additional information concerning the non-public portion of Wal-Mart Bank's business plan and given the numerous requests for public hearings that the FDIC has received, hearings would clearly be in the public's interest.

Signed: Gary Ackerman, Michael Capuano, Julia Carson, William Lacy Clay, Emanuel Cleaver, Geoff Davis, Barney Frank, Paul Gillmor, Katherine Harris, Darlene Hooley, Paul Kanjorski, Sue Kelly, Steve LaTourette, Jim Leach, Barbara Lee, Stephen Lynch, Carolyn McCarthy, Carolyn Maloney, Gary Miller, Gwen Moore, Bernie Sanders, Chris Shays, Brad Sherman, Nydia Velazquez, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz