Senate Approves Amendment To Retain Fed Oversight Of Small Banks

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May 13, 2010 Thursday

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Report: Senate approves amendment to retain Fed oversight of small banks

Robb Soukup

The Senate approved an amendment to its financial overhaul bill allowing the Federal Reserve to keep its supervisory oversight of smaller banks, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

The Senate voted to approve an amendment to its financial overhaul bill allowing the Federal Reserve to retain supervisory oversight of smaller banks, according to a May 12 report from Bloomberg News.

As originally written, the legislation gave the Fed supervision of banks with $50 billion or more in assets, placing oversight of smaller banks with the FDIC and the OCC. Senators voted 90-9 to approve the amendment, which was offered by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R.-Texas, Bloomberg reported.

Arguing against the limits, Fed officials told members of Congress that the proposal would leave some regional Fed banks without institutions to oversee. They also argued that maintaining oversight over a wide swath of the banking industry improved monetary policy.

Lobbying groups for the financial industry supported the amendment and organized visits to congressional offices from executives of small banks, according to the news story.

May 19, 2010