CFA in the Spotlight

If there is one message that ICBA hears loud and clear from community bankers, it is that the regulatory and exam environment is overly harsh. While other groups ballyhoo the excessive regulatory burden, actions speak louder than words, and what is being done about it is what truly matters. To that end, the ICBA-advocated Communities First Act (CFA), legislation that would directly reduce the tax and regulatory burden on community banks, is teed up and advancing in Congress. Several provisions in the CFA would help eliminate unnecessary paperwork requirements burdening community banks. One CFA provision would require bank regulators to develop a short-form call report that is "significantly and materially less burdensome" to prepare. To ease and simplify Federal Reserve capital requirements on small bank holding companies without nonbanking activities, the CFA would raise the qualifying threshold to $1 billion under the small bank holding company policy statement.