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The Hill: House Financial Services field hearing looks at effects of Dodd-Frank regulations

Charleston, WV, Aug 20 -

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) chaired a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing Monday on how new regulations are affecting financial institutions, particularly those in her home state.

The Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit panel held the field hearing in Charleston, W.Va., courthouse.

“If we’re going to get our economy moving again, small businesses must have access to capital so they can grow and create new jobs,” Capito said before the hearing. “Yet the burden of new red tape coming out of Washington is crushing small, community-based financial institutions like those we have in West Virginia. We need to look at the cumulative impact all these regulations are having on our economy and see what can be done to eliminate unnecessary roadblocks to our recovery.”

Capito specifically called out some of the regulations passed in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Most Republicans argue that new regulations can increase compliance costs for businesses and banks, thus taking away money that could have otherwise been spent on lending and investments.

Several local banking executives testified as the field hearing, as well as some small-business owners.

“The flood of regulations emanating from Dodd-Frank is so large that bank regulators have been urging banks to add compliance officers to handle it,” said Charles Hageboeck, the president of City National Bank, in his testimony Monday. “And despite claims that community banks like mine would be exempt from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we are not exempt. All banks — large and small — will be required to comply with the rules and regulations set by the CFPB.

“Given that the cost of compliance has a disproportionate impact on small banks as opposed to large banks, it is reasonable to expect this gap to widen even more as Dodd-Frank is fully implemented.”

Capito’s subcommittee has held similar field hearings to examine the effect of regulations on businesses banks in Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia and Texas.

By Ramsey Cox