Tag Archives: Senate Banking Committee

Democratic Members on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees announced in a press release that new legislation will provide targeted relief to small financial institutions and protection for consumers. This legislation was introduced in both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate and has the unanimous support of Democratic Members of the respective committees.

The Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015, introduced last week by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) is aimed at providing regulatory relief for community and regional banks and credit unions, and proposes what Shelby calls "moderate" changes that would increase the transparency of the Federal Reserve.

The hearing, entitled "Regulatory Relief for Community Banks and Credit Unions," was a gathering of the committee's lawmakers to discuss the effect of recent regulatory burdens placed on smaller banks and credit unions in response to the financial crisis.

In a widely anticipated move, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) was elected Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for the 114th Congress, according to an announcement from Shelby's website Thursday.

In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee's subcommittee on housing, Mabel Guzman, 2014 chair of the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Conventional Finance and Lending Committee, highlighted some of the biggest challenges constraining homeownership.

To say the Republicans have an uphill battle ahead where GSE reform is concerned is an understatement. The president has the power of the veto pen and while both sides have vowed to work together on areas that they can disagree, the extent to which he would support major Republican led legislation remains to be seen.

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee earlier in the week, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said the financial condition of banks has improved since the financial crash—but he believes that supervisors need to "remain vigilant."

Financial regulators said Tuesday they hope to finish their work on a rule aimed at tightening mortgage standards and reducing risk by the end of this year. In a Senate Banking Committee hearing, FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg said his agency and others are "in the end game" of their work on a rule that would require mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issuers to hold a stake on packaged loans that don't meet certain exemption requirements.

In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made the case that while the economy has seen improvement, the economic recovery is still too fragile to deviate from the present course of Fed policy. Notably, Yellen noted the recent cooling in housing as a sign.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the president's pick to replace Shaun Donovan as secretary of HUD, appeared to breeze through his first nomination challenge Tuesday as he fielded questions from the Senate Banking Committee. Facing questions from the group of senators, Castro addressed the current stability and role of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which had to take a $1.7 billion bailout last year for the first time in its history.