Press Releases

Today, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a Financial Institutions Subcommittee hearing, led by Subcommittee Chair Andy Barr (KY-06), to explore reforms to increase accountability in bank supervision and enhance interagency coordination.

Read Subcommittee Chair Barr’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery:

"I want to thank our witnesses for being here today for the first of many in-depth hearings on the importance of supporting community financial institutions.

"The committee’s first hearing of the 119th Congress laid the foundation for what we aim to accomplish in the Financial Institutions subcommittee this Congress. During that hearing, we heard from regulatory experts and community bankers who are being crushed by the weight of burdensome and politically-driven regulations from Federal bank regulators.

"Community banks are the lifeblood of local economies and serve as critical support for small businesses, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

"Unfortunately, these community banks were swept up in the regulatory overhaul of Dodd-Frank 15 years ago despite not being contributors to the financial crisis.

"The 'one-size-fits-all' approach to regulation created by Dodd-Frank ignores the unique business models and size of these local institutions and impresses unnecessary compliance costs upon them.

"In 2018, Congress acknowledged the need to adjust regulations on financial institutions that reflect their associated risk profile and lending strategy. This led to the passing of the bipartisan Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act - or S. 2155.

"This was a monumental step in re-calibrating our federal bank regulation framework toward a more dynamic, risk-based approach that does not impose excessive compliance burdens on small or less complex financial institutions.

"Unfortunately, Democrat-appointed regulatory officials under the Biden administration have abandoned the bipartisan policy of tailoring in favor of a uniform, subjective-based approach.

"We saw this firsthand with the interagency rulemaking on Basel III 'Endgame', a partisan campaign led by former the former Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve that moved away from risk-based tailoring and required small, less-complex institutions to follow the same rules as the largest, global systemically important financial institutions.

"Fortunately, due to the overwhelming number of negative comment letters and pushback from legislators on both sides of the aisle and both Chambers of Congress, this de facto rollback of S. 2155’s tailoring was not finalized.

"Last Congress, we advanced several bipartisan bills that reassert Congressional oversight over the kinds of agreements regulators strike with global governance groups such as the Network for the Greening of the Financial System – or the NGFS. This proved to be successful as our prudential regulators have since pulled out of the NGFS.

"Several bills attached to today’s hearing that advance regulatory tailoring and maintain Congress’ Article I authority over these agencies.

"I’ve heard from community bankers across the country about the inconsistency and lack of clarity in the supervision and examination framework being driven by partisan bureaucrats in Washington.

"Rather than our Prudential regulators working alongside supervised institutions to ensure compliance, we have seen a shift to promoting agendas such as climate-related finance or the debanking of legally operating businesses – dangerous deviations from the core mission and purpose of these agencies.

"For example, we have seen regulators hand out supervisory determinations based on novel interpretations of long-standings laws without providing a meaningful appeals process.

"Without any due process, these covered institutions are constantly held in limbo while they await the next press release that attacks their legal business strategy.  

"This hearing will examine how Congress can direct bank examiners to use objective, risk-based metrics in their examination process, specifically regarding the CAMELS framework and the abuse of the 'management' component that has hindered otherwise-compliant firms.

"I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about Congress’ role in supporting an objective, risk-based regulatory and supervisory framework that works for all Americans, the importance of regulatory tailoring, and the need to protect the U.S. financial system from overreach by global governance groups. Thank you, and I yield back."