[House Hearing, 114 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] PRESERVING CONSUMER CHOICE. AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE ======================================================================= HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ MARCH 18, 2015 __________ Printed for the use of the Committee on Financial Services Serial No. 114-8 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 95-052 PDF WASHINGTON : 2015 ________________________________________________________________________________________ For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office, http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center, U.S. Government Publishing Office. Phone 202-512-1800, or 866-512-1800 (toll-free). E-mail, [email protected]. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES JEB HENSARLING, Texas, Chairman PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina, MAXINE WATERS, California, Ranking Vice Chairman Member PETER T. KING, New York CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York EDWARD R. ROYCE, California NYDIA M. VELAZQUEZ, New York FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma BRAD SHERMAN, California SCOTT GARRETT, New Jersey GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts STEVAN PEARCE, New Mexico RUBEN HINOJOSA, Texas BILL POSEY, Florida WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri MICHAEL G. FITZPATRICK, STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts Pennsylvania DAVID SCOTT, Georgia LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia AL GREEN, Texas BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri EMANUEL CLEAVER, Missouri BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin SEAN P. DUFFY, Wisconsin KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota ROBERT HURT, Virginia ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado STEVE STIVERS, Ohio JAMES A. HIMES, Connecticut STEPHEN LEE FINCHER, Tennessee JOHN C. CARNEY, Jr., Delaware MARLIN A. STUTZMAN, Indiana TERRI A. SEWELL, Alabama MICK MULVANEY, South Carolina BILL FOSTER, Illinois RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois DANIEL T. KILDEE, Michigan DENNIS A. ROSS, Florida PATRICK MURPHY, Florida ROBERT PITTENGER, North Carolina JOHN K. DELANEY, Maryland ANN WAGNER, Missouri KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona ANDY BARR, Kentucky JOYCE BEATTY, Ohio KEITH J. ROTHFUS, Pennsylvania DENNY HECK, Washington LUKE MESSER, Indiana JUAN VARGAS, California DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona ROBERT DOLD, Illinois FRANK GUINTA, New Hampshire SCOTT TIPTON, Colorado ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas BRUCE POLIQUIN, Maine MIA LOVE, Utah FRENCH HILL, Arkansas Shannon McGahn, Staff Director James H. Clinger, Chief Counsel C O N T E N T S ---------- Page Hearing held on: March 18, 2015............................................... 1 Appendix: March 18, 2015............................................... 59 WITNESSES Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Bosma-LaMascus, Peggy, President and Chief Executive Officer, Patriot Federal Credit Union, on behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU)................... 10 Fenderson, Tyrone, President and Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth National Bank, on behalf of the American Bankers Association (ABA).............................................. 5 Levitin, Adam J., Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center......................................................... 11 Miller, Patrick, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC Federal Credit Union, on behalf of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA)............................................. 6 Williams, J. David, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Centennial Bank, on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).............................................. 8 APPENDIX Prepared statements: Bosma-LaMascus, Peggy........................................ 60 Fenderson, Tyrone............................................ 109 Levitin, Adam J.............................................. 121 Miller, Patrick.............................................. 135 Williams, J. David........................................... 186 Additional Material Submitted for the Record Green, Hon. Al: Written statement of Hilary O. Shelton, Director, NAACP Washington Bureau & Senior Vice President for Policy and Advocacy................................................... 225 Pittenger, Hon. Robert: Letter from Ira M. ``Don'' Flowe, Jr., Chief Credit Officer, BlueHarbor Bank............................................ 232 Bosma-LaMascus, Peggy: Additional information provided for the record in response to a question posed by Representative Sherman during the hearing.................................................... 234 PRESERVING CONSUMER CHOICE. AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE ---------- Wednesday, March 18, 2015 U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Financial Services, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room HVC-210, Capitol Visitor Center, Hon. Jeb Hensarling [chairman of the committee] presiding. Members present: Representatives Hensarling, King, Royce, Lucas, Neugebauer, Pearce, Posey, Fitzpatrick, Westmoreland, Luetkemeyer, Huizenga, Hurt, Stivers, Mulvaney, Hultgren, Ross, Pittenger, Barr, Rothfus, Messer, Schweikert, Dold, Guinta, Tipton, Williams, Poliquin, Love, Hill; Waters, Maloney, Sherman, Lynch, Green, Cleaver, Himes, Kildee, Delaney, Sinema, Beatty, Heck, and Vargas. Chairman Hensarling. The Financial Services Committee will come to order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. Today's hearing is entitled, ``Preserving Consumer Choice and Financial Independence.'' I now recognize myself for 3 minutes to give an opening statement. I would say of all the priorities of our committee, I know of not one that is more urgent than providing some regulatory relief for our community financial institutions. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are literally withering on the vine. We are losing more than one a day and they are not perishing of natural causes. The sheer weight, volume, cost complexity, and uncertainty of Federal regulation is a burden that is killing them off. And as they die, unfortunately so do the dreams of millions and millions of our fellow citizens, hardworking taxpayers who rely upon these community financial institutions to help buy a pickup truck to drive to work, maybe help fund the first kid in their family to ever go to college, or to start a small business and achieve their American dream of financial independence. It is not an exaggeration to say that every single week, we hear from another financial institution that is having trouble meeting the needs of their customers. I have one here from a bank in Arkansas who says that due to the Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule, they have had to cease funding mobile homes, ``which have long been a source of homeownership for low- to moderate- income consumers in our markets.'' Here is one from a credit union in California who says that due to Federal regulation, one of their members can no longer wire funds to a family member in the Ukraine. Here is one from a bank in Massachusetts, that writes, ``We have experienced a spike in loan declines to women.'' Further investigation identified that women attempting to buy the family home to settle their divorce and stabilize their family were being declined at a high rate due to the Dodd-Frank Qualified Mortgage rules and the ability-to-pay rules. Regrettably, these are not exceptions. We hear from these banks and credit unions every day and we understand how the Federal regulation can adversely impact low- and moderate- income Americans. Now some, particularly those on the other side of the Capitol, have said community financial institutions are doing just fine. In fact, they have said, ``Regulators have been doing a pretty good job of protecting community banks.'' I suspect many of our witnesses will disagree with their statement. And I believe that assertion is just wrong, dangerously wrong and out of touch with low- and moderate- income Americans. Much, but certainly not all, of this regulatory burden has emanated from Dodd-Frank. I am not a fan of Dodd-Frank, but even I can find some good in it: what Dodd-Frank attempted to do on Section 13(3) of the Fed; what it has done to help eliminate the credit rating agency's monopoly; what it has done to make balance sheets less opaque. So if I can find some good in it, I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle can admit that maybe it has done some harm. I know Barney Frank has found at least a half dozen different areas where he would amend his own law. He said it right in front of us, right in front of this committee back in July. So I would ask all my Democrat colleagues to have an open mind as we enter into this, and I invite all Members to engage in the bipartisan effort of regulatory relief for our community financial institutions; find some common ground. I will reserve the right to have an exception to the rule, but the rule is going to be that if any Member brings us a legitimate bipartisan piece of legislation to provide needed regulatory relief to community financial institutions, we will mark it up. Time is of the essence, so let's get started. I yield 4 minutes to the ranking member. Ms. Waters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today we gather to supposedly discuss preserving consumer choice. And while the principle itself is an important one, I am highly skeptical that any of the issues or solutions we will consider today can be described as a serious effort to do so. History tells us that opposed to virtually every effort to sensibly correct private sector failures have cried wolf in our position to reform; saying that the regulation would end by hurting the very people it tries to help by removing their choices. It is a talking point that has existed for as long as this government has tried to protect consumers and the broader economy. For example, in 1934 New York Stock Exchange President Richard Whitney opposed the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that it would destroy the markets and businesses Congress sought to protect. As recently as March 2007, just months before the economic collapse, representatives of industry and the Bush Administration argued in front of this very committee that reforms to the toxic subprime market would harm access to credit for first-time home buyers. Over time, these regulations, like those that prohibit child labor, mandate seatbelts, and protect consumers from poor quality foods, drugs, and toxins in our environment, among others, have shown that markets and industries function better when consumers know that products need basic standards, and that means protecting consumers from unsafe and unsound financial products, no matter how profitable they are to lenders or how cheaply they can be offered to borrowers. The irony is that by weakening regulations and consumer protections put in place after the Great Recession, this committee would affect choice and financial independence, but in the wrong way. It would invite a return to a recent time when hardworking Americans were choosing whether to pay for medication or their mortgage, and when they were choosing between taking their family to a homeless shelter or spending one more night in the car. A free market system with ample consumer choice only works when businesses compete on cost and quality. I don't know how much they can cut corners or bend the rules. That is true whether they are talking about faulty exploding toasters or faulty exploding mortgages. Mr. Chairman and Members, I welcome your invitation for bipartisan legislation. As you know, I have met with you and I have tried. We have worked hard and continue to work hard for community banks. Unfortunately, there are those who wish to include too- big-to-fail banks in anything that we try for our community banks. We have witnessed a time when consumers had no protection. We have witnessed a time a time when not only did consumers have no protection, but the fact of the matter is, we had one of the most important things happen in Dodd-Frank, and that is the development of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has taken into consideration concerns of community banks, and has made modifications. And we have said on this side of the aisle, where there are technical changes or concerns, we are willing to work with them. And so I am pleased to hear the offer that has been made by the chairman today and I look forward to working with them in any and every way that we can to deal with real issues and not just talking points. Chairman Hensarling. The gentlewoman yields back. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Neugebauer, the chairman of our Financial Institutions Subcommittee, for 2 minutes. Mr. Neugebauer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing. There was a recent Harvard University study that appropriately described what I knew when I was a community banker, that their competitive advantage is the knowledge and history of their customers and the willingness to be flexible. Unfortunately, this big regulatory burden that we have placed over our community financial institutions is taking away their flexibility. And every Member here has been back to their district and has heard from their financial institutions on how they are maybe not able to provide the same services, or make some of the same loans that they made in the past. What we are also hearing is, alarmingly, that we are seeing a lot of consolidation in our community financial institutions. I think when you look at the credit unions and the community banks, that nearly 2,200 consolidations over the last 4 or 5 years, and why is that important to our communities? Because when you look at the community financial institutions, they are the primary supplier of credit for our small businesses. They are, in many cases, the only source for mortgages in those particular markets. If you look at, in my district, for example, production agricultural loans. Community financial institutions make over 75 percent of the production agricultural loans in this country. And so we have to move away from the government knows what financial products are best for you, and go back to the scenario where the customer, the consumer, the borrower and their lender are working out the best solutions for them. And we also need to preserve our community financial institutions which are such an integral part of our community. And so, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for holding the hearing today. And I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on this very important subject. With that, I yield back. Chairman Hensarling. The gentleman yields back. We will now go to our witnesses. Our first witness is Mr. Tyrone Fenderson, the president and CEO of Commonwealth National Bank, testifying today on behalf of ABA. He received his bachelors degree from Faulkner University and completed the graduate programs at the Louisiana State University and Troy University. He was named to Birmingham Business Journal's top 40 under 40 list in 2006. Our second witness is Mr. Patrick Miller, the president and CEO of CBC Federal Credit Union, testifying today on behalf of CUNA. Prior to joining CBC, Mr. Miller worked for 22 years in the financial services industry. Mr. Miller is a graduate of Hiram College. At this point, I will yield back to the gentleman from Texas for our next introduction. Mr. Neugebauer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is my pleasure to introduce David Williams, the chairman and CEO of Centennial Bank in Lubbock, Texas, testifying today on behalf of ICBA. He is a Lubbock native, second generation of family. Their family has been in banking for a very long time. David knows a lot about community banking. And another special relationship that I have is that not only is David a personal friend, but about 38 years ago Mr. Williams helped this young homeowner from Lubbock, Texas, start a development company and took a chance. I think that is the spirit of community banking, so we are delighted to have Mr. Williams testifying today. Chairman Hensarling. And the gentleman's recommendation is that he took a chance on you? Our next witness, Peggy LaMascus, is the president and CEO of the Patriot Federal Credit Union in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and she is testifying today on behalf of NAFCU. This Thursday is Ms. LaMascus' 45th anniversary in the credit union industry. We all know she must have started at the age of 10. Ms. LaMascus is a graduate of the Huntington College of Business. And finally, Professor Adam Levitin is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, and he has testified before us before. Before joining the Law Center, Professor Levitin worked as an attorney in private practice and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the third circuit. He holds degrees from Harvard Law School, Columbia University, and Harvard College. Each of you will be recognized for 5 minutes to give an oral presentation of your testimony. And without objection, each of your written statements will be made a part of the record. For those who have not testified before, there is a green light, yellow light, and red light system, not unlike the lights you encounter on the highways, and they mean the same thing. We would appreciate you keeping to the 5-minute limit. At this time, Mr. Fenderson, you are recognized for your testimony. STATEMENT OF TYRONE FENDERSON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, COMMONWEALTH NATIONAL BANK, ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION (ABA) Mr. Fenderson. Chairman Hensarling, Ranking Member Waters, my name is Tyrone Fenderson, and I serve as president and CE0 of Commonwealth National Bank in Mobile, Alabama. My bank is one of the small community banks that I hear members of this committee often speak of. We are a $60 million institution that works every day to serve the needs of our customers of Mobile. I appreciate the opportunity to be here to represent ABA and to discuss how the growing volume of bank regulations, particularly for community banks, is hurting the ability of banks to meet the needs of consumers and our communities. ABA appreciates the leadership of many members of this committee in addressing this issue. Community banks are resilient. We have found ways to meet our customer's needs despite the ups and downs in the economy. This job has been made much more difficult by the avalanche of new rules, guidance, and seemingly ever-changing expectation of regulators. It is this regulatory burden and the fear of even more regulation that often pushes small banks to sell to banks many times their size. In fact, today there are 1,200 fewer community banks than there were 5 years ago. This trend will continue unless some rational changes are made to provide relief to America's hometown banks. Regulation shapes the ways banks do business and can help or hinder the smooth functioning of the credit cycle. Every bank regulatory change directly affects the cost of providing banking products and services to customers. Even small changes can reduce credit availability, raise costs, and drive consolidation. Everyone who uses banking products and services is impacted by changes and bank regulation. Let me briefly share a story that a banker recently shared that illustrates the impact these rules have on communities. The bank located in Texas recently had to take all lending discretion away from its loan officers. Due to the fears of inadvertently violating fair lending regulations, it now must rely solely and exclusively on a numbers-driven model to underwrite their loans. This has meant turning away loans that they otherwise would have made. In one case, this meant turning down a 30-year customer who had never been late on a payment for a loan to repair the heat in his daughter's home. Stories such as this are common in hometowns across the country. This is why it is so important for Congress to take steps to ensure that the banking industry's ability to facilitate jobs and grow our economy exists. We urge Congress to work together, Senate and House, to pass bipartisan legislation that would enhance the ability of community banks to serve our customers. We support legislation that would require regulators to tailor their regulatory approach so that it only applies where the bank's business model and risk profile require it. Regulators should be empowered and directed to make sure that rules, regulations, and compliance burdens only apply to segments of the industry where it is warranted. Some of the bills introduced by this committee are also an important first step. Representative Barr's American Jobs and Community Revitalization Act, H.R. 1389, contains provisions that would reduce the burden on community banks in ways that make it easier to meet customer's needs. A few key provisions include ensuring that loans held in portfolio are considered Qualified Mortgages; requiring a review and reconciliation of existing regulation; providing a longer exam cycle for highly-rated community banks; and streamlining currency transaction reports for seasoned customers. Additionally, legislation introduced by Representatives Luetkemeyer, Neugebauer, and Barr contains measures that would help American hometown banks get back to serving our communities. Some of these provisions of the bill would eliminate mailing the privacy notices when no changes have been made to privacy policies; allow highly-rated, well-capitalized community banks to file short-form call reports; establish an effective appeals process to the definition of a rural area; and ensure proper oversight of the CFPB. ABA stands ready to help and work with Congress to address this important issue. I would like to thank you for your time, and I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. [The prepared statement of Mr. Fenderson can be found on page 109 of the appendix.] Chairman Hensarling. Thank you. Mr. Miller, you are now recognized for your testimony. STATEMENT OF PATRICK MILLER, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CBC FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, ON BEHALF OF THE CREDIT UNION NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CUNA) Mr. Miller. Thank you, Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters. Thank you for the invitation to testify today for the Credit Union National Association. I am Patrick Miller, president and CE0 of CBC Federal Credit Union located in Oxnard, California. America's 100 million credit union members rely on their credit unions for safe and affordable financial service products. As member-owned, not-for-profit institutions, credit unions continue to provide tremendous benefits in terms of lower interest rate loans, higher returns on deposits, low or no-fee products and services, and financial counseling and education. Because credit unions actively fulfill their mission as Congress intended, consumers benefit to the tune of about $10 billion annually. However, since the beginning of the financial crisis, credit unions have been subjected to more than 190 regulatory changes from nearly 3 dozen Federal agencies, totaling nearly 6,000 pages. These new rules, usually aimed at curtailing practices that we don't engage in, impact us because we have to do several things: assess the rule and determine how to comply; change internal policies and controls; design and print new forms; dedicate additional resources to retrain staff; update computer systems; and finally, help our members understand all these changes. And we have done this over 190 times in just the last few years. Obviously, this takes time and money, both of which could be far better spent serving our members. After all, every additional dollar spent on compliance is a dollar that cannot be loaned to a member. Regulatory burden is not just about the dollars and cents of running a credit union. We serve hardworking members, your constituents, and this constant onslaught of regulations directly affects their ability to borrow. Not every member and every loan fits arbitrary rules imposed by regulators. Without the flexibility to determine the appropriate services, credit union members lose out. After the CFPB issued a QM rule, we originated about half the amount of our borderline mortgage loans that we would have made before. For example, we had to deny 50 families a home loan, who we feel were qualified borrowers, simply because we feared regulatory scrutiny on non-QM loans. I should be able to evaluate the ability to repay of my credit union members in Oxnard, California. The decision should not be left to someone in Washington. Overregulation has real-world consequences for our members. Credit unions should not be required to comply with rules more appropriately suited for too-big-to-fail institutions. I agree with members of this committee who said that too-big-to-fail has turned into too-small-to-survive. Small financial institutions are consolidating at an alarming rate due to the weight of regulatory burdens and the high cost of compliance. Jobs are lost, communities are underserved, and the consumer is left with fewer options. For example, regulations that adversely affected my credit union are the CFPB mortgage servicing rules. These rules were created because of companies like high-risk mortgage servicers and Wall Street banks, not credit unions. Our credit unions have never had any loan servicing complaints, yet the pages and pages of new rules make it more onerous and expensive to service home loans. Outsourcing costs are outrageous and would cost our credit union more than $100,000 per year. This is an unnecessary expense, and since credit unions are member-owned, this extra cost affects our members directly. While I can share numerous other stories with the committee, I also want to focus on just a few of the more than two dozen recommendations for statutory changes found in my written testimony. For example, we encouraged Congress to ensure the CFPB uses exemption authority to a much greater extent than it has to date. Members of this committee have acknowledged that the Bureau has such authority, but we believe it is now being used sufficiently. We ask Congress to clarify and strengthen these exemption instructions as they pertain to smaller depository institutions like credit unions. We also urge the committee to actively engage in the debate over data security. Credit unions and their members are greatly impacted by the weak merchant data security practices that have allowed several large-scale breaches. At my small credit union, we dedicate $575,000 a year to cybersecurity because protection of data is of the highest priority, particularly when merchants are not doing their part. The negligence of those that don't protect their payment information costs my industry money, and shakes the confidence of our members. These fees would be significantly reduced if those that accept payments were subject to the same standards as those that provide cards. Frankly, I am concerned about the security of the vast amount of consumer data being collected by the CFPB and other regulators. More needs to be done on this issue, and we encourage the committee to act. My written testimony also includes two recommendations related to the Federal Home Loan Bank System: one would permit credit unions to join the System; and the other would give us parity with banks and extend the community financial institution exemption to include credit unions under $1 billion in assets. Credit unions did not cause the crisis, but you wouldn't know that based on the hundreds of rules to which we have been subjected. Since you believe we are not the problem, please work with us to remove the barriers that keep us from serving our members, your constituents. Congress can do a lot more to remove barriers for credit unions and we are grateful for the committee's desire to address these issues. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. [The prepared statement of Mr. Miller can be found on page 135 of the appendix.] Chairman Hensarling. Mr. Williams, you are now recognized for your testimony. STATEMENT OF J. DAVID WILLIAMS, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CENTENNIAL BANK, ON BEHALF OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY BANKERS OF AMERICA (ICBA) Mr. Williams. Chairman Hensarling, Ranking Member Waters, and members of the committee, I am David Williams, chairman of the Centennial Bank in Lubbock, Texas. I am pleased to represent the Independent Community Bankers Association of America, and 6,400 community banks, at this most important hearing. Centennial Bank, chartered in 1934, is a $740 million bank. It serves rural and urban markets in the Panhandle, South Plains, and central Texas. Our mission is to build successful and meaningful lifetime relationships with our customers. This long-term culture, typical of thousands of community banks across the Nation, is at risk today. In recent years, Centennial Bank has seen the nature of our business fundamentally change from lending to compliance. Regulatory burden reaches the level of overkill when it injures the customer or consumer it was intended to protect. Please consider the following examples: A startup small business owner, or farmer, may have business-related debt on their credit report that will disqualify them under QM's 43 percent debt-to-income (DTI) limitation. Business formation should be encouraged, not punished. Minority borrowers are more likely to exceed the DTI limitation according to a Federal Reserve study of lending in 2010. As a small creditor under the CFPB's definition, my bank is not subject to the debt-to-income limitation and we serve these customers, but many other community banks do not have small creditor status. Even as a small creditor, my bank is significantly limited by QM. Here are some examples of loans that are not QM even for small creditors. Low-dollar loans are common in many parts of the country for rural and refinancing. Both the QM closing fee--excuse me, but the QM closing fee cap is often a challenge when making these loans. Balloon loans, which were used to manage interest rate risk on loans that can't be sold into the secondary market, are non-QM unless they are made by lenders in predominantly rural areas, beginning in 2016. For banks like mine that serve both rural and urban markets, it is nearly impossible to meet the ``rural lender'' definition. In our New Mexico market, regulatory barriers to mortgage lending are pushing would-be homeowners into the rental market. In Clayton, New Mexico, for example, an average renter now pays $800 to $900 a month, though he or she could purchase a much nicer home for $80,000 with a monthly mortgage payment of $400. I believe the disparity between rents and mortgage payments in this market is directly attributable to the overly stringent underwriting required by the new mortgage rules. I hear these stories again and again from community bankers in Texas and around the country. These are not isolated anecdotes. Numerous empirical studies, which I cite in my written statement, have reached the same conclusion. The good news is there are readily available solutions to this pending crisis. ICBA's plan for prosperity is a robust regulatory relief agenda with nearly 40 recommendations that will allow Main Street and rural America to prosper. A copy of the plan is attached to my written statement. This committee's work in the last Congress set the stage for enacting meaningful regulatory relief in Congress. We are encouraged by the bills that have been introduced so far, many of which reflect our plan for prosperity. Chairman Neugebauer's Financial Product Safety Commission Act, H.R. 1266, would changes the structure of the CFPB so that it is governed by a five-member commission. This would create a system of checks and balances that is absent in the single director form of governance. I want to highlight the CLEARR Act, H.R. 1233, introduced by Representative Luetkemeyer, which contains provisions addressing mortgage regulatory relief, capital access, and reform of oversight and supervision. The CLEARR Act has been endorsed by 34 State community bank associations. A key provision of the bill, automatic QM status for any mortgage held in portfolio, is also contained in the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, H.R. 1210, introduced by Representative Barr. A portfolio lender that holds 100 percent of a credit risk has every incentive to thoroughly assess the borrowers financial condition. This is a simple, easy-to-apply solution to the threat of QM. These bills, among others before the committee, are all a part of the solution to regulatory burden. We strongly encourage this committee to complete the work that was done in the last Congress, and enact meaningful regulatory relief for community banks. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to your questions. [The prepared statement of Mr. Williams can be found on page 186 of the appendix.] Chairman Hensarling. Ms. LaMascus, you are recognized for your testimony. STATEMENT OF PEGGY BOSMA-LAMASCUS, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PATRIOT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FEDERAL CREDIT UNIONS (NAFCU) Ms. LaMascus. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Hensarling, Ranking Member Waters, and members of the committee. My name is Peggy LaMascus, and I am testifying today on behalf of NAFCU. Tomorrow will mark my 45th anniversary with credit unions, having started at Westvasamco Federal Credit Union on March 19, 1970. For the last 33 years, I have been the CEO of Patriot Federal Credit Union, a community credit union in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, serving over 51,000 members in 3 counties in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The entire credit union community appreciates the opportunity to expand on the topic of regulatory relief. The impact of the growing compliance burden is evident as the number of credit unions continues to decline. Since the second quarter of 2010, we have lost 1,200 federally-insured credit unions, 96 percent of which were below $100 million in assets. Many institutions simply cannot keep up with the new regulatory tide and have had to merge out of business or be taken over. Many others have had to cut service to their members. Credit unions and their members need regulatory relief, both from Congress and their regulators, including NCUA and the CFPB. Our members at Patriot have been directly impacted by regulations. For example, we hear from members who are angered by the outdated six transfer limitation from Federal Reserve Regulation D. This includes a homebound, disabled member who managed her finances primarily through phone and electronic services because of the difficulty of leaving home to come to a branch. She is one of our many members feeling the burden of this outdated requirement. Other members can no longer make international remittance transfers with us. Patriot opted to stop doing them because the new CFPB requirements were too costly and burdensome to comply with for the limited number we make annually. One of the greatest challenges credit unions face is the major disconnect between the regulatory agencies in Washington, and the real world credit unions and their members live in. While regulators have taken some small steps toward relief, too often arbitrary assets thresholds don't actually consider the risk or complexities of institutions. Regulation of the system should match the risk to the system. My written testimony outlines NAFCU's updated, five-point plan for credit union regulatory relief, as well as our new top 10 list of regulations that need to be amended or eliminated. One example of a burdensome regulation where costs will outweigh the benefits is NCUA's new risk-based capital proposal. The new proposal is an improvement over the initial proposal, but the problem with the regulation remains. The proposed rule is extremely costly, and NCUA has not demonstrated why credit unions need a broad brush regulation. Despite NCUA's estimate that a limited number of credit unions will be downgraded, the proposal would force credit unions to hold hundreds of millions of dollars in additional reserves to achieve the same capital cushion levels they currently maintain. These funds could otherwise be used to make loans to consumers or small businesses. Ultimately, we believe legislative changes are required to bring about comprehensive capital reform, including allowing credit unions access to supplemental capital. NAFCU also believes that field of membership rules for credit unions should be modernized on both the legislative and regulatory fronts, and I have outlined ideas for those in my written testimony. Additionally, cost and time burden estimates issued by regulators are often grossly understated. We believe Congress should require periodic reviews of actual regulatory burdens of finalized rules, and ensure agencies remove or amend those rules that vastly underestimated the compliance burden. Some credit unions have reported to NAFCU that it has taken them over 1,000 hours to comply with CFPB's new mortgage requirements. There are also a number of bills outlined in my written statement that NAFCU supports and we would urge action on. My statement also highlights areas where regulators can provide relief without congressional action. In conclusion, the growing regulator burden on credit unions is the top challenge facing the industry today. It must be addressed in order for credit unions to survive and meet their mission of serving their members' needs. We thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts with you today. I welcome any questions you may have. [The prepared statement of Ms. LaMascus can be found on page 60 of the appendix.] Chairman Hensarling. And, Professor Levitin, you are now recognized for your testimony. STATEMENT OF ADAM J. LEVITIN, PROFESSOR OF LAW, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER Mr. Levitin. Chairman Hensarling, Ranking Member Waters and members of the committee, good morning. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. My name is Adam Levitin, and I am a professor of law at Georgetown University, where I teach courses in consumer finance, among other topics. I am glad to see the committee show interest in the problems facing community financial institutions. Community banks and credit unions play an important role in their communities and in the American financial system. They are key sources for small business and commercial real estate and agricultural credit, and they are essential for preserving consumer choice in the financial services marketplace. There is no question that as an industry, community financial institutions are ailing. The number of community banks in the United States has fallen nearly in half over the last decade. This is the continuation of a long-term trend. Indeed, for the past couple of decades community banks have disappeared at a steady rate of around 300 a year, and similar situations exist for credit unions. The central problem that community banks face, however, and the main reason they are disappearing is not regulation and is not the CFPB. Community banks have been disappearing at the same steady rate for decades before the CFPB came into existence, much less before its regulations became effective. CFPB regulations have only been in effect for the past 1 or 2 years. It is hard to blame new regulations for a decade's old trend. The CFPB has actually repeatedly put a friendly sum on the regulatory scale to ease regulatory burdens for community banks. My written testimony outlines no fewer that 10 CFPB regulatory exemptions for small financial institutions. This is on top of key statutory exemptions. Additionally, the CFPB has a proposed rulemaking that would expand some of the exemptions to potentially cover nearly all community financial institutions. The CFPB has also taken pains to create multiple channels for smaller financial institutions to communicate their concerns to the Bureau, including voluntarily establishing a community bank advisory board, a credit union advisory board, and an office of financial institutions. All of this is in addition to the special rulemaking requirements with which the CFPB must comply under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. The real problem that community banks face is not the CFPB or regulation; instead, it is the cold, hard truth of the market. Size matters in consumer finance. Community banks lack the economies of scale necessary to compete in the key consumer finance market of mortgages and credit cards. Increasingly, economies of scale matter for deposits because mobile banking and security issues are driving up technology costs. In short, community banks face a serious structural disadvantage in the consumer finance marketplace. Members of this committee have proposed a number of bills that would address various aspects of CFPB regulation. I address some of these bills in detail in my written testimony. With one exception related to mortgage servicing, I believe them to be ill-advised, because they are either premature, unnecessary, or, in some cases, would actually encourage predatory lending or restrict access to credit. These bills would also add to regulatory uncertainty. Any changes that are made now by statute would call for a further round of regulations and more uncertainty for the industry. Most critically, though, none of these bills are responsive to the real problem faced by community financial institutions. Focusing on the weedy details of CFPB regulations instead of addressing the unequal playing field between community banks and mega-banks is like worrying about electrolysis and chin hairs while ignoring a malignant tumor. It just misses the point. If this committee really wants to help community financial institutions, the single best thing it could do would be to pass legislation that would tax or break up the mega-banks. Additional regulatory exemptions for community banks are insufficient to save this industry because no amount of regulatory exemptions will sufficiently level the playing field for community banks. Moreover, these exemptions will come at the cost of consumer protection. American families' financial security should not be put at risk to subsidize private corporations, even community banks. If Congress truly cares about community banks, it needs to take action to break up the too-big-to-fail banks, to benefit from the implicit taxpayer guarantee, and pose a serious threat to financial stability. Until and unless this is done, community banks will never be able to compete on a level playing field. The only way to save the community banking industry in the long run is to break up the mega-banks. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Mr. Levitin can be found on page 121 of the appendix.] Chairman Hensarling. The Chair now yields himself 5 minutes for questions. Ms. LaMascus, you are sitting right next to the law professor who says regulation is not your problem. Do you agree with that assessment? Ms. LaMascus. No, I don't. I do believe that there should be an exemption for credit unions or a general exemption for small institutions. The CFPB does provide some exemptions for small institutions; however, they vary based on each rule. I understand the arguments that each rule deserves its own consideration for its impact on small institutions. We think the CFPB could provide better relief if it would provide one general exemption for small institutions, such as credit unions, for most of the regulations. Chairman Hensarling. Ms. LaMascus, you mentioned in your testimony a member of your credit union whom I believe is disabled, and after triggering the six-transfer limitation under Reg D, this disabled member has to find some physical way to walk into the credit union. Did I understand you correctly? Ms. LaMascus. She has to have someone who helps her get to the credit union. Of course, we are an accessible credit union, but it is difficult. She has to find-- Chairman Hensarling. Do you happen to know if this member somehow works on Wall Street, because supposedly these regulations were designed to rein in Wall Street. Is she part of the Wall Street-- Ms. LaMascus. No, no, she does not work on Wall Street. Chairman Hensarling. Do you have a branch on Wall Street? Ms. LaMascus. No. Chairman Hensarling. Do any of you all have a branch or credit union or bank on Wall Street? You don't. Mr. Levitin. Mr. Chairman? Chairman Hensarling. It is my time, Professor Levitin. I am sure you will have plenty of time to have your views heard. So we understand that there has been a decline in our community financial institutions but the statistic I have shows it has been greatly exacerbated over the last few years. I think the rate of decline has almost doubled. I also see that there have only been four de novo bank charters since Dodd- Frank came about. Isn't part of the problem here that the regulations are really helping commoditize credit? So we have the thesis that regulations are not your problem, your problem is scale. You are told you have to know your customer for purposes of law enforcement. Apparently, it is not good enough to know your customer for purposes of credit extension. If you are denied the ability to engage in relationship banking, which I assume the regulations are causing us to lose relationship banking, and I assume you are having more difficulty competing. Mr. Williams, I see your head nodding. Do you have an opinion on the matter? Mr. Williams. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Recently we merged with another bank to achieve economies of scale for reasons that I would disagree on. Regulatory burden clearly is a major cause of that. And we provide credit to rural Americans and the QM rule is affecting that, certainly in west Texas. And to farmers and small business folks in that area and clearly it is disqualified applicants that we would have once approved. Chairman Hensarling. Mr. Fenderson, do I understand it properly that your bank is one of the few federally-chartered minority-owned banks; is that correct? Mr. Fenderson. Yes, sir, we are one of the three national chartered banks owned by African-Americans, predominantly. Chairman Hensarling. Do I understand that you primarily serve underserved areas around the Mobile, Alabama, area? Mr. Fenderson. That is correct. Chairman Hensarling. And do I also understand that when the QM rule came out, you had to suspend mortgage lending to your underserved population, is that correct? Mr. Fenderson. When the regulation burden started, we had to pull back and suspend mortgage lending in order to understand it. We have 27 full-time equivalent employees, and as an institution in a metropolitan market, we simply did not have the staff and had to add compliance staff. Chairman Hensarling. So as a minority-owned bank, serving an underserved population, if you have to suspend mortgage lending, where do these people go? Mr. Fenderson. To alternatives, which means we don't get a chance to make that money, and it means that they have to find other alternative sources, which sometimes are not very friendly with the price. Chairman Hensarling. I assume some of them may not have the ability to actually find the credit necessary to buy that home that they wanted to buy? Mr. Fenderson. That is correct. Chairman Hensarling. And you also don't have a branch on Wall Street; is that correct? Mr. Fenderson. We do not. Chairman Hensarling. Okay. The Chair now recognizes the ranking member. Ms. Waters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I would like to go to Mr. Levitin. A recent Harvard working paper states that community banks share banking assets, and the lending market has been in a fast decline since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and echoes the concerns of the industry that recent financial reforms and the establishment of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau are the cause. Are you familiar with that study, Mr. Levitin? Mr. Levitin. I am. Ms. Waters. And do you agree with the conclusions? Mr. Levitin. No, I think it is a-- Ms. Waters. Why not? Mr. Levitin. It is not really a scholarly study, let's start with that. Ms. Waters. What you do mean it was not scholarly? Mr. Levitin. Well, how to count the ways. I think one of the most simple things is the way it treats the data. The article looks at--it says, well, community banks have been shrinking since the Dodd-Frank Act, therefore it is because of the Dodd-Frank Act. That is bad logic, that is what is called an ex post ergo--ah, I am going to get my Latin wrong, but point being, just because something happens afterwards doesn't mean it is an effect. Rather, what the article completely ignores is that there has been a long-term trend with community banks shrinking, and that the article is not actually able to show any cause and effect with the Dodd-Frank Act, much less when the regulations under the Dodd-Frank Act actually go into effect, which has only been in the past year. Actually, it is ironic because in the last year, the fourth quarter of the last year, community banks grew 28 percent over the previous year. They actually had a great end of the year as compared to the large banks, which did not. So I think it is really hard to say that regulation is causing all the problems of community banks. Is it possible that there is a regulation or two that needs to be tweaked? No doubt. I would not make such an absolute argument against it. But I think it is just a serious mistake to claim that regulation is the problem for community banks. I would note for the chairman's benefit, Regulation D is not a CFPB regulation and has been on the books without changes for many, many years. So the problem that you discussed with Ms. Bosma-LaMascus is not one caused by any new regulatory changes. Ms. Waters. All right. Thank you very much. I think I would like to go to Ms. Peggy Bosma-LaMascus. I see that you have mentioned as the various to credit unions that Congress--to correct these barriers, Congress should make several improvements to the Federal Credit Union Act. One you list is to restore credit unions' business lending authority, increase the member business lending cap. Would you make more loans, mortgage loans if we did that? Ms. LaMascus. Yes. Ms. Waters. I can't hear you. Ms. LaMascus. Sorry. Yes. Ms. Waters. Do you realize that there are many Members, particularly on this side of the aisle, who support that? Ms. LaMascus. Yes. Ms. Waters. And have you worked with the banks so that you could have an effort to come together to support the credit unions being able to increase business lending? A lot of you say we should work together more. Can the banks and the credit unions come together around something like this? Ms. LaMascus. I can't necessarily speak for my brethren who are down the line here. Ms. Waters. Have you talked to them about it? Have you tried? You have been around for a long time. In 40 years, have you ever talked to the banks about coming together and stop opposing your ability to expand business lending? Ms. LaMascus. Representative Waters, actually today, we have many issues on which we are very much in agreement, and, in fact, I believe we are all in agreement that if Congress could require realistic and robust cost-benefit analyses of proposed regulations, documentation, that we would all be able to give much more targeted feedback so that the result would be smarter regulation. I believe that we are all supportive of changes to Reg D, such as increasing that limitation from six. It makes sense in today's lifestyles with so many people using electronic technology. I believe that we are all in agreement on changes that need to be made to the-- Ms. Waters. Thank you very much. I just wanted to mention that because that is one of the issues that I care a lot about. Mr. Miller, you talk a lot in your testimony about what is wrong with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and you mentioned everything from they should go before the Appropriations Committee to have a five-member mission, et cetera. What and why do you think those issues are important to what you need to have done to eliminate your ability to make loans? Mr. Miller. We feel that generally, the structure of how the CFPB was created creates a situation where there is regulation without representation from all relevant stakeholders. We believe a larger board of three to five members--I would prefer five members--who are appointed would allow for diversity of perspectives, and opinions, and deliberation, and debate before decisions are made, before rules are rolled out. Ms. Waters. Thank you very much. Mr. Miller. We think transparency and the appropriations process and budget process would make sense too. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentlelady has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Neugebauer, chairman of our Financial Institutions Subcommittee. Mr. Neugebauer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Williams, in your testimony you talked about the QM rule and debt-to-income ratio and low-dollar, high-cost loans. I was just thinking as you were saying that, and then you mentioned about people not able to access homeownership, and continue to rent. I was thinking about Hart, Texas. I was wondering if that single mom maybe works at the Hart Cafe part-time, and she has another part-time job, but she has saved up some money over the years, and she would like to quit being a renter and wants to be a homeowner. If you can't make that loan, who is going to make that loan to her? Mr. Williams. Congressman, I can't say who would make that loan. We couldn't make the loan or we would have difficulty, because it is a small community, it is going to be non- conforming--it is a non-conforming property because it is not an urban. We wouldn't have comparables for the appraisals. It would be a very difficult loan to make. We would try to find a way to do it. We do have portfolio lending services, but under the QM rule, we could not make a qualified loan. Mr. Neugebauer. And so particularly, I believe, in Hart, you are the only bank, is that correct? Mr. Williams. Yes, sir, that is correct. Mr. Neugebauer. In a lot of communities around the country now there is just one community bank left. And so if there is not a community bank left to make those loans, whether it is a mortgage loan for that single mom or a production agricultural loan, it doesn't leave a lot of choices, does it? Mr. Williams. No, sir, it doesn't. I have empirical data from our State association of Texas where we went out and solicited feedback from our member bankers, and 25 percent of those banks' remarks in the rural markets, if they were not there to make the loans, no one was there to make the loans. Mr. Neugebauer. I thank you for that. Mr. Miller, I think you mentioned in your testimony about one of the credit unions in Corpus Christi maybe--the CFPB's final rules on making remittances was put in place, I think, about 150 members of the credit union kind of lost access to be able to utilize those services. What other kinds of choice limitations are going on in the credit unions that are beginning to limit the products that members are able to access? Mr. Miller. The remittance rule is a great example, well- intended legislation, if you wanted to give people a chance to shop for a half hour after they place their instructions to send a wire, an international wire. I don't know anybody who shops after they make a decision and walks into a non-Wall Street bank or credit union and says, I am going to shop around and see if I can save $10 on my international wire transmittal. Most people do their shopping before they walk in and make a decision. That is our opinion on the remittances. On QMs, we have turned down 50 members who couldn't get a home loan because we are afraid of regulatory scrutiny. What that is going to do is, it's going to force fewer and fewer choices for the consumer. They are going to pay more, because when there are fewer choices, markets are efficient, so whoever gets that business is going to charge a little bit more, and fewer people are going to enjoy the benefits of homeownership, which I know has always been something the members of this committee are pretty passionate about: Letting people who qualify to own a home, own a home. Whether it is credit cards, whether it is car loans, whether it is personal loans or school loans, there are all kinds of--the same thing is going to happen in virtually every category of lending: fewer choices; higher prices; fewer jobs; fewer banks and credit unions that are generating their own jobs to create a cascading impact on their local economies; fewer business lenders; fewer mortgage lenders; fewer car loan lenders. It is going to cost jobs and it is going to be a down draft in on the economy. There won't be an explosion of toasters and mortgages; there will be an implosion of jobs and economic growth. Mr. Neugebauer. Thank you. Mr. Fenderson, you indicated you are a relatively small bank, I think $60 million, is that correct? Mr. Fenderson. That is correct. Mr. Neugebauer. We have the new Basel III capital requirements for small institutions which became effective January 1st of this year. So for a small institution, when you have to keep more capital, what does that do to your ability to serve your customers? Mr. Fenderson. I can speak generally about that, we are not a seller servicer so we are not applicable to Basel III, but the colleagues I speak with across the country understand that will restrict--if they have to hold more capital, then they are not able to make as many loans, and it will make them decide how they treat those loans, on whether they want to be in that business or not. In fact, I have heard of some servicers who are getting out of that business. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from New York, Mrs. Maloney, ranking member of our Capital Markets Subcommittee. Mrs. Maloney. Thank you, Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters. Professor Levitin, as you know, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have had a string of hearings, a relentless campaign to weaken Dodd-Frank and they claim that it is too costly for financial institutions, but this just looks at one side of the equation, the cost to financial institutions. I would look also and take into account the cost to consumers of not having adequate consumer protections in place. They say this downturn cost $16 trillion of household wealth, large unemployment, we were shedding 700 jobs a month, 800 jobs a month. Can you comment on the long-term cost to consumers, and I would say the overall economy, of not adequately regulating financial products and services? It has been said that our regulation didn't keep up with the innovation, and experts testified before this committee and others that this was the first financial crisis in history that could have been prevented with better financial regulation of risky products and risk-taking. So, your comments please. Mr. Levitin. The financial crisis was completely preventable and would have been prevented if the Dodd-Frank Act mortgage regulations had been in place. The scape of the scale of the financial destruction, and particularly household wealth, and especially for communities of color, as a result of improving mortgage lending, not all of which was done through securitization, but a great deal which was also financed through bank portfolio lending, particularly Countrywide, Wachovia and Washington Mutual all had large portfolio lending operations. All of that caused tremendous loss of wealth for American families. I think it is also important to note that sometimes regulations actually not only protect consumers, but put money back in their pockets. The Credit Card Act, of which you were one of the authors, has been found to actually have saved consumers billions of dollars, yet we don't hear-- Mrs. Maloney. Over $10 billion a year, that is a stimulus package that we gave the American people. Mr. Levitin. I thought you would have the number. But we don't hear a peep about that when regulation is discussed. Instead, regulation is only looked at in terms of compliance costs without seeing the benefits, whether it is financial stability or clear pocketbook savings for American families. Mrs. Maloney. So just to emphasize, do you think these costs outweigh the incremental costs of compliance to financial institutions? I would say the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights helped institutions, it hasn't hurt their bottom line; you cut out unfair, deceptive practices so that more people have trust in their services. Mr. Levitin. There are costs to doing business and there is not an inherent right to get to operate a bank. It requires a charter and you have to be able to be competitive. And part of being competitive is being able to comply with regulations, particularly regulations that are necessary for preserving certain minimum standards within the industry. Mrs. Maloney. Also in your testimony, you noted that the CFPB has already granted community banks significant regulatory relief. In your opinion, do you think the CFPB has been sufficiently responsive to the concerns of community banks? Mr. Levitin. Generally, I believe it has been. There are some places where one might dicker with the CFPB about a particular threshold for exemptions. For example, on the remittances rule, should the number of remittances be 100 per year or 200? I think there are reasonable differences of opinion. But, directionally, I think the CFPB has made considered judgments. And it is trying to balance important considerations not just about small financial institutions but about consumers. Mrs. Maloney. And you raised another important point in your testimony, that the oversight of the non-bank mortgage servicing industry is uncoordinated, to use your words, and that, ``Until and unless housing finance reform is resolved, the industry will remain in flux and in need of reform.'' Given the uncertainty surrounding housing finance reform, what alternatives would you suggest concerning coordination across the relevant regulators of non-bank mortgage servicers that could begin to address the reforms that you believe would improve the overall economy and consumer experience? Chairman Hensarling. The gentlelady's time has expired, so a quick answer, please. Mr. Levitin. Obviously, there are tremendous difficulties with getting any kind of legislation passed on housing finance reform. Until and unless that happens, I think that there needs to be a formal coordination mechanism among financial regulators on mortgage servicing in order to try and stabilize the servicing industry. Chairman Hensarling. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Luetkemeyer, the chairman of our Housing and Insurance Subcommittee. Mr. Luetkemeyer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Professor Levitin, I just want to thank you. Mr. Perlmutter and I have been working on, for the last 2 years, legislation to delay the implementation of Basel III on capital standards for mortgage servicing assets, and I see in your testimony you support doing that. I certainly appreciate that. Just quickly, have you ever worked in the private sector? Have you ever worked at a bank or a credit union? Mr. Levitin. No, I have not. Mr. Luetkemeyer. Have you-- Mr. Levitin. I have worked for them, but I have never worked at them. Mr. Luetkemeyer. Okay. I was just kind of curious. So your real-world experience is really based on what you read in books or magazines or newspapers or read from studies of things that go on in the financial world. Is that correct? Mr. Levitin. No, that is not correct. Mr. Luetkemeyer. You just said-- Mr. Levitin. I would add to that, I regularly work as a consultant for financial institutions and trade associations, including one of the ones that is represented here. And I also-- Mr. Luetkemeyer. Mr. Levitin, I think one of the-- Mr. Levitin. --before I get to see the internal workings of financial-- Mr. Luetkemeyer. As part of your testimony here, you continually try to say that the CFPB is the problem that these folks here are consumed with, and I think their testimony talks about the overwhelming amount of regulations. Your testimony basically talks about the CFPB. And I think each of these folks have given that. And just to make the point about the CFPB, I have here a letter, and I will just sort of summarize it. Basically, what they are saying is that on February 25th, the CFPB proposed to suspend a rule with regard to credit card users and the card agreements that the Bureau had developed so that they could streamline their system. Because they don't have enough people to input the automation and do the cataloging and review that it is going to take, they don't even have the ability to watchdog and oversee the rules they make. So I wish they would give time to the other institutions they oversee to be able to have the ability to implement these rules on their own, which they don't seem to be willing to do. Along that line, I brought with me this morning a real estate loan matrix. This was put together by a compliance company, a company that deals in providing forms for institutions that provide real estate loans. And there are seven--I am sure you can't see it, but there are seven different categories of security. There is a total of 370 boxes that have to be checked or reviewed to see where this loan fits into. There is a timetable down here that has 24 different forms that have to be used at some point, or may be used, during the course of the implementation and working out this loan. This is the kind of stuff that is overwhelming the system. It is not just the CFPB; it is all of this in its totality. So I appreciate the comment this morning by Mr. Williams that said 25 percent of the loans would no longer be made by you as a result of this type of inundation and the QM rule and all these things that are going on. So I was just kind of curious if I can get a figure from each of you this morning with regards to how much have you seen that this curtailed. For instance, Mr. Williams and Mr. Miller, where do these people go when you no longer have access? Are these people going to get their home loans now at FHA, to the Federal Government, these agencies? Where are they going? Mr. Williams. I can't answer that, Congressman. All I can say is my information was wrong. I said 25 percent said there are no other banks or financial institutions in the area, and it is actually 29.7 percent. And I apologize, but I wanted to correct that. It is important to understand that there are secondary lenders, but it is going to cost the consumer a great deal more money, or they are going to have to rent. They are not going to be able to get a loan. Mr. Luetkemeyer Mr. Miller, do you know where those folks go when they can't get a loan from you? Mr. Miller. I think, in most cases, because they came to us, they didn't go to a big bank for a reason. Because they either already got turned down, or they wanted to come in to somebody local that they know and they trust, that they have been a member of for decades. Mr. Luetkemeyer. Mr. Fenderson, do you know where your folks go when they can't get a loan? Mr. Fenderson. I would say that community banks represent choice and flexibility when consumers try to decide. So, like Mr. Miller noted, they are coming to us for a reason, because they believe that we have the flexibility. Unfortunately, there are some consumers who are not highly qualified for mortgages, and that gives us the ability to do those loans. And then they have to find a source that is probably not as cost-effective. Mr. Miller. If I could add, maybe they still rent that mobile home that the other bank can't make a loan on anymore. Mr. Luetkemeyer. Ms. LaMascus, do you know where your folks go when you can't make a loan to them? Ms. LaMascus. They either are unable to conduct their transaction or they have to go somewhere else where they have to pay more, dealing with people they don't know. They are not able to work with their trusted creditors. Mr. Luetkemeyer. So, basically, what you have all told me is that there is an access-to-credit problem as a result of the excessive amount of rules, regulations, forms, and restrictions you have to deal with. Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Mr. Luetkemeyer. Thank you very much. I yield back. Chairman Hensarling. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Lynch. Mr. Lynch. I want to thank you all for your willingness to come before the committee and help us with our work. And I feel like I have to defend Professor Levitin down there. I do want to point out that Mr. Levitin is the only witness on our panel this morning who is not being paid by a specific interest, in connection with his testimony. Mr. Levitin has not received any Federal grants or any compensation connected with his testimony. He is not testifying on behalf of any organization, and the views expressed by him are his own. So, enough about that. Mr. Levitin, let me ask you, your testimony indicates that there were--you identified several accommodations that we try to make in Dodd-Frank to actually address the clear differences between the mega-banks that we were trying to reel in and the community banks. And I know from my personal work on that bill with Congressman Frank that we tried at every turn to try to make a distinction between the regulation against the big banks that caused the problem and the community banks who did not cause the problem. I love my community banks. And maybe this is just my district, but when I have seen community banks go away in my district, they have merged where there have been acquisitions. Larger community banks have purchased smaller community banks in pursuit of growth. As a matter of fact, we have had two major credit unions that have been so successful in my district that they have converted to become banks so that they could expand further than their jurisdiction allowed as a credit union. So, yes, they have gone away, but for growth purposes. But, Professor Levitin, if you could just talk a little bit about what you identified in some of your testimony, but drill down a little bit deeper about the advantages that we have tried to give to community banks so that they might succeed. Mr. Levitin. Sure. In the Dodd-Frank Act, I think there are three really important distinctions made between community banks and credit unions and large banks. First, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has no authority to examine financial institutions with less than $10 billion of assets. Instead, their examinations occur with their regular prudential regulator, and they are, therefore, subject to only one set of examinations, not two. Mr. Lynch. So in the universe of the under $10 billion, what is the percentage of that? Do you have any idea? Mr. Levitin. I have the number right around here. For the under $10 billion, we are talking about--for banks, there are 108 banks that have over $10 billion in assets. That is out of 6,518 banks in the United States. So about 2 percent of banks are subject to CFPB examination. And only five credit unions-- Mr. Lynch. Wow. Mr. Levitin. --out of--it is around 6,400. Mr. Lynch. And we are being accused of overreaching. Mr. Levitin. That is correct. Mr. Lynch. Okay. Mr. Levitin. The second thing the Dodd-Frank Act does is it exempts these smaller financial institutions--again, less than $10 billion of assets--from enforcement actions by the CFPB. Enforcement actions would have to be undertaken by their prudential regulators. And, to date, I am not aware of their prudential regulators having undertaken a single enforcement action for authorities that exist under the Consumer Financial Protection Act. Finally, the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act exempts financial institutions with less than $10 billion of assets from regulation of debit card interchange fees, the fees that merchants have to pay whenever they accept a debit card transaction. That gives smaller institutions a tremendous leg up competitively against large institutions. So, there are already a number of things in the Dodd-Frank Act that are really trying to look out for small financial institutions. Mr. Lynch. Great. I only have 40 seconds left. Anything else you want to add to your testimony that you might have been asked by another Member and didn't have an opportunity to respond? Mr. Levitin. Not at this point, but I appreciate that. Mr. Lynch. Okay. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Chairman Hensarling. The gentleman yields back. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from New Mexico, Mr. Pearce. Mr. Pearce. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank each of you for your testimony today. Mr. Levitin, you made a comment on page 7 of your testimony that absent FDIC insurance, depositors would never use small institutions instead of large ones. Where did you get that information from? Mr. Levitin. I think you can look at what happened at the-- Mr. Pearce. No, I just asked where you got it from. Mr. Levitin. I got that from my own research, sir. Mr. Pearce. Okay. So, Mr. Fenderson, do you find, when the people walk in the door to make deposits, they tell you they are there because you are an FDIC institution? Mr. Fenderson. No, sir. Mr. Pearce. Okay. Mr. Miller, you have a lot of small outfits. Do they walk in to you and say, we are looking for your insurance, that is the reason we are going to put our money with you? Mr. Miller. No, sir. Mr. Levitin. Sir, I would just point out there are three non-FDI-insured-- Mr. Pearce. No, no. Please. No, please. You are the one who was critical. I think you said that there was not a scholarly study earlier in answer to one of the questions, and I am trying to get to the basis of the scholarly study that came up with the observation that people only use small institutions because of the FDIC. Because that has no relevance. I represent the Second District of New Mexico, and I will guarantee you the people who walk in the doors are not there because they are FDIC-insured. The Second District, by the way, is Roswell, New Mexico. The aliens landed there. And the aliens have more knowledge of what happens in small banks than what you do, sir. And your scholarly study leaves a little bit to be desired. Mr. Levitin. Sir, I think I am entitled to a point of personal privilege on this. Chairman Hensarling. The time belongs to the gentleman from New Mexico. Mr. Pearce. You will have to ask the chairman for personal privilege. I am just telling you that when you say in your testimony that a portfolio lender can lend at high rates and aggressively pursue defaults--50 percent of the homes in my district are manufactured houses. Now, those people who loan money and keep the mortgages in their portfolio are not doing that so they can go and repossess those things. They are trying to help low- income borrowers get a place to live. Mr. Levitin. You have no disagreement with me on that, sir. Mr. Pearce. Mr. Chairman, if you would have him pursue his own time, I would appreciate it. But your scholarly study that you bring and give to us today is offensive to the people on the low-income ladder, because Dodd-Frank has made it very difficult for them to make a living. It is, in fact, a war on the poor and the middle- income people of this country. And to have you sit here and just say things that the people next to you can't counteract is-- Mr. Miller. Mr. Pearce, can I make a follow-up comment? Mr. Pearce. Yes. Mr. Miller. I also take umbrage with the comment that it is just a cost of doing business. There is no such thing as a cost of doing business because it is passed directly on to our members and the customers of the banks that are represented here. We pass on roughly 25 basis points on every loan and increase higher interest rates because of compliance costs. We pay our members roughly 25 basis points less overall on deposits because of compliance costs. Mr. Pearce. Mr. Miller, do you-- Mr. Miller. So it is not a cost of doing business. It is a cost to your constituents and our members. Mr. Pearce. I understand. Mr. Miller, do you make loans on manufactured houses? Mr. Miller. No, we do not. Mr. Pearce. I'm sorry, not Mr. Miller but Mr. Williams. I was looking at Mr. Williams and calling him Mr. Miller. Mr. Williams. Yes, we do. And the answer to your first question is, no. Mr. Pearce. Yes, okay. People don't come in for the FDIC insurance. Mr. Williams. They do not. Mr. Pearce. So what is the status in the manufactured house loans? Mr. Williams. We can't qualify them under the QM rules. Mr. Pearce. Do you hold them in portfolio? Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Mr. Pearce. How many do you repossess in a year? Mr. Williams. The last 4 or 5 years, I would say maybe one, possibly two. Mr. Pearce. Yes. That is what I-- Mr. Williams. A very, very small number. Mr. Pearce. There is only one institution left in the southeast part of New Mexico that makes loans on these kind of houses, and they have the lowest default rate of any. And so it seems like scholarly studies would include coming out and actually visiting those institutions where they make those kinds of loans before they start passing along this genius bit of information that caused the CFPB to include balloon loans and these manufactured housing loans as predatory lending, because it makes life very difficult for us out there in the parts of America that never get visited by the educated- leap-making scholarly studies. The fact that there are two tiers of regulations--that is another point that Mr. Levitin makes--do you find those two tiers of regulation, Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. I find it--I would like to see multiple- tiered regulations. Mr. Pearce. Yes. In other words, the regulator just--they are not going to learn two standards. They are going to come in, and they are going to judge everybody by the same standard. That is trickle-down regulations, and it is a point that is completely overlooked by the CFPB. But, again, thank you. Mr. Williams. Thank you. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, ranking member of our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Mr. Green. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank the ranking member, as well. Mr. Levitin, you have some comments that you would like to make. I would like to yield some time to you for your commentary. Mr. Levitin. I very much appreciate that, Mr. Green. I think it is important to understand FDIC insurance a little better than the gentleman from New Mexico was discussing. There are, I think, around three financial institutions in the United States, three depositories, that do not have FDIC insurance. No depository is required to have FDIC insurance. They choose to get it. And why do they choose to get it? Because they know they can't compete without it. It is not that any consumer goes in looking for FDIC insurance; we take it for granted today. We just assume that every bank has FDIC insurance. But there are all kinds of regulations that support the existence of our financial services industry in its current state. And I think that you deeply misunderstood what I was saying in my testimony, and I hope that misunderstanding is being corrected. Beyond that, I think it is just offensive to throw at me characterizations about being an elitist or something when you know absolutely nothing about where I am from or my background. And I would appreciate it if I would be treated with courtesy when I testify here. Thank you. Mr. Green. Thank you, sir. Permit me, if I may at this time, Mr. Chairman, to introduce for the record, with unanimous consent, testimony of Mr. Hilary Shelton. This is what he would say if given the opportunity to present testimony. He represents the NAACP. May I ask unanimous consent to present this for the record? Chairman Hensarling. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. Green. Thank you. Now, let's talk for just a moment about what we do and what we say. We talk about small banks, community banks, but we legislate large. When we try as best as we can to legislate for the small, the terminology becomes large. Example: We have actually had testimony indicating that a community bank is a $50 billion bank. If we legislate for a community bank and the legislation covers $50 billion banks, have we done what we sought to do? Many of the community banks that I have worked with, that I talk to, have indicated that they would like to get some help, and I would like to help them. The question becomes, what is a community bank? Is a $50 billion bank a community bank? I am going to ask my friend from Texas. Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Congressman, it is very difficult to define a community bank-- Mr. Green. I will withdraw my question. Mr. Williams. Okay. Mr. Green. Let me go on. We want to help the small banks. More than 90 percent of the banks in this country have assets of under a billion dollars, a billion or under, 90 percent or more. And we would like to help that 90 percent, or we would like to move it up to a higher amount. But whenever we try to do this, we run into this question of the legislation applying to $50 billion banks. It is very difficult to perceive of legislating to cover $50 billion banks under the guise of helping small banks. That is a difficult lift. So I would like to help the small banks, but whenever we get to a definition, we can't seem to find one. So let me ask you, Mr. Fenderson, is a $50 billion bank a community bank? Mr. Fenderson. A $50 billion bank that has the sensitivity of its community-- Mr. Green. ``Has the sensitivity of its community.'' So if we pass legislation to help small banks under the guise of helping community banks and we help the $50 billion banks--you have just heard the testimony about mega versus small banks--we will end up helping mega-banks. So, in your opinion, a $50 billion bank can be a community bank? Mr. Fenderson. Yes. We need the ability to be flexible as a-- Mr. Green. Are you a $50 billion bank? Mr. Fenderson. We are a $60 million bank. Mr. Green. $60 billion? Mr. Fenderson. $60 million. Mr. Green. Okay. So I am asking you about billions. Is a $50 billion bank a small bank? Mr. Fenderson. By asset size, a $50 billion bank is not a small-- Mr. Green. Is it a community bank? Mr. Fenderson. A $50 billion bank can be a community bank. Mr. Green. Therein lies the problem, dear sir. Therein lies the problem. If we want to help you and the $60 million banks and the billion-dollar banks and the banks under $10 billion and we legislate such that we cover $50 billion banks, why don't we just repeal Dodd-Frank? Because that is what we are talking about here. We would end up eliminating the protections that Dodd-Frank accords consumers from the mega-banks. Mr. Fenderson. May I answer? Mr. Green. I have no more time. Mr. Neugebauer [presiding]. The time of the gentleman has expired. I now recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Posey, for 5 minutes. Mr. Posey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to agree with my distinguished colleague that maybe we should repeal it. I think that is a great idea. In the meantime, I have a question for Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller, you stated that you are concerned about the data collection at the CFPB, and I wonder if you would be kind enough to expand on those concerns, and what it is that you fear. Mr. Miller. There are roughly 37 new data fields that are collected on a loan because of the proposed HMDA rules from CFPB. They say they want to improve the quality of data gathered. We believe this is Big Brother gone wild. The rule adds these 37 new data elements. We don't know what they are going to do with it, but we do know what the data elements are. They include things like where you live, your age, your sex, value of your home, income, how much you spend, how much you owe, your payment amounts on your credit cards and other debt obligations. That is too much information that could be use for improper purposes. Anybody can go ask for this information. It is an invitation to massive identity theft that could threaten the financial security of hundreds of millions of Americans. Mr. Posey. Besides anyone asking for the information, we know of quite a few Federal databases that have been violated, including the Pentagon. How secure do you feel that data is in the hands of the CFPB? Mr. Miller. My members tell me they are very fearful. I am more concerned about what my members think, but we are also very fearful. We want more done in this area, and we would ask the committee to do some work to establish some very tight standards. So if they are going to gather all this information and make it accessible to people, what is the purpose? And do a cost-benefit analysis. And how many people are we going to catch making a bad loan as a result of gathering all these new data fields? And where is the information security for your constituents? Mr. Posey. As they did with the foreign deposit issue, the Treasury obviously does not feel that it is important to comply with the cost-benefit law. And since they control the purse strings of the CFPB, I am hesitant to believe there is any possibility we would get the proper relief there. A question for you and Mrs. Bosma-LaMascus: The NCUA has put out a new proposal on risk-based capital after thousands of comments, including a letter I signed along with 323 other Members of Congress, which supposedly improves the risk-based capital rule. What do you think about that rule, and is it necessary? Does it add to the regulatory burden? Mr. Miller. We believe there are improvements in the second draft of risk-based capital from NCUA, but we think several components result in additional situations like we just discussed that are solutions that won't work to problems that don't exist. Mr. Posey. We understand that. We interpret that as the omnipresent defenders of the nonexistent problems of the people. We are getting quite familiar with that. Mr. Miller. Yes. Yes, sir. For example, they were asked to establish what the definition of ``well-capitalized'' is, and they added another definition--or they were asked to address ``adequately capitalized.'' Then they added another definition of what ``well-capitalized'' is. So they have created more complexity, and we don't think that is what they were commanded to do. They were commanded to provide one definition, and they created two. So we don't support the two-tiered rule on capitalization. We also--no, I will just yield to Ms. LaMascus because I want to make sure she has some time, because we are running out of your time. Mr. Posey. Thank you very much. Ms. LaMascus. Thank you, Mr. Miller. We don't have enough time to talk about the additional complexity that this new way of measuring our capital based on this risk would cost and add to credit unions. We believe it is unnecessary. NCUA has not been able to substantiate to us why it is necessary. It is costly. They are building in additional tiers, as Mr. Miller talked about, which will take millions of dollars out of play for credit unions to be able to lend to their members and keep our economy growing. So-- Mr. Posey. Who owns the credit unions? Who are the big, greedy capitalists they are trying to protect us from? Ms. LaMascus. They are all members. Credit unions are owned by their members, which tend to be working-class people. Mr. Posey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Neugebauer. I thank the gentleman. And now the gentleman from California, Mr. Sherman, is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. Sherman. The backbone of our economy is small business. All of us in our districts every week meet people who can't get the business loan they need to expand. And, as much as I want to help the businesses represented here, I want to help the businesses that need to borrow for those business loans, particularly if they are in the San Fernando Valley. Now, the ranking member has pointed out that one way to do this is through member business lending and credit unions. And I think that has been covered well at the hearing, and I certainly support it. But I am told by many depository institutions, they say, look, if we make a loan at prime that deserves to be at prime, everything is fine, but if we make a loan at prime-plus-4, prime-plus-5--because there is some risk, because there is a 1 in 20 chance that we are going to have some problems collecting, and our examiner comes down on us like a ton of bricks, and requires, in effect, a 100 percent charge-off. What do we need to do--and don't limit yourself to changing Dodd-Frank. I know that is the hot political issue. What do we need to do so that you can make the $5 million prime-plus-5 loan to the small business that has an element of risk in it, for which you deserve to be compensated, but needs capital to expand? I am looking for someone who wants to answer. Yes, Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Congressman, the best thing we could do in your specific example would be to do away with the QM rule as regards the qualification, potentially, for that business. And I know that relates to a mortgage-- Mr. Sherman. Yes, that relates to a mortgage. Mr. Williams. And that relates to a mortgage-- Mr. Sherman. We are talking about businesspeople who will pledge their homes-- Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Sherman. Okay. So there is one small element of this, and that is some institutions that don't do a lot of real estate servicing want to make a loan to one of their customers, and they are required to have an impound account. And I am working on legislation now with others to at least say that if you are holding if for your portfolio--because it really is a loan to help somebody expand their business or really is a personal loan--that if you don't want to have an impound account, you would not have to if it is a loan you are holding for your portfolio. I think that would help a bit. But what modification would you have for QM loans that are really business loans? Mr. Williams. For loans that we hold in our portfolio, for them to be exempted from QM. Mr. Sherman. Just exempt from QM, not-- Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Because we take 100 percent of the credit risk-- Mr. Sherman. That is my bill on steroids. Mr. Williams. --and we are comfortable with that because we underwrite it. Mr. Sherman. Gotcha. I have a question about the HUD-1 that is being phased in, TILA and RESPA forms. These go into effect on August 1st. I wonder what steps the organizations you represent are taking to comply with this regulation and make sure that consumers who buy a home this summer won't face disruptions? Do you think you are on schedule? I will ask first the representative of the American Bankers Association. Mr. Fenderson. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. We, as a small community bank, rely heavily upon the vendor to provide those new disclosures to us. And there is an integration process that has to be fulfilled. We don't have a timeline because our service provider cannot provide us with a timeline so far. All we know is that there is a bullet deadline that we have to meet and that there are some-- Mr. Sherman. How confident are you that you can meet it without disrupting the real estate market? Mr. Fenderson. Unfortunately, we are relying upon a service provider. And so I don't have a whole lot of confidence that we will get there, except for the fact that they have to get it done. Mr. Sherman. Gotcha. If I had a service provider I was relying on, I would want to find out whether they are going to be able to help. One other issue is we have all these data thefts, cybercrime. And a lot of retailers, for example, have not done a good job, or at least an adequately good job, in protecting their data. It is my understanding that part of the reason for that is because all of the cost that is occasioned by these cyber breaches falls on the folks represented here. What do we need to do so that there is a fair sharing of the cost of this data theft, particularly with credit and debit cards? Chairman Hensarling. Regrettably, the time of the gentleman has expired. Mr. Sherman. I look forward to getting a response for the record. Chairman Hensarling. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Royce. Mr. Royce. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The outlook for community banks and credit unions is one of increasing challenges because we have smaller financial institutions that have fewer assets over which to spread these compliance costs that we are talking about here. And looking at the numbers, they seek to achieve this economy of scale as a consequence through mergers, which is not exactly what we want to encourage here. From 2013 to 2014, the number of community banks fell by 273 banks. Now, that is a 4\1/3\ percent decrease in just one year. And, similarly, we heard testimony that, since mid-2010, 1,200 federally-insured credit unions have left the market. And that is not the calling card of a sector that is doing better than ever. So I will go to Mr. Williams and I will ask him--because we did hear previously from a community bank that saw its compliance cost double in the last few years. They had to hire a new full-time--they had to hire full-time employees, they testified, as I recall, at $65,000 each. And a recent Minneapolis Fed study found that one-third of banks with assets under $50 million would become unprofitable with the addition of just two full-time employees. That study was done because of these compliance costs. So, a question for Mr. Williams: Are we experiencing this situation where increased personnel costs affect the variability to extend credit? Mr. Williams. Congressman Royce, yes, we are. Frankly, it is difficult to measure our total compliance cost. I have colleagues who have said they have done an in- depth study and their costs are 18 percent of their operating budget. We estimate 15 to 20 percent of our operating overhead is now focused on hard and soft costs for compliance costs. And this would be up, from 10 to 15 years ago, a 5 percent number. So I would easily say fourfold. Mr. Royce. Personally, I think much of the problem is that recent regulations are aimed at attempting to outlaw risk- taking, rather than ensuring through examination and supervision that such business practices are backed by adequate capital and low leverage. And so, because of the approach, in my view--if instead the focus was capital on the part of the regulatory community here, banks would be hiring more loan officers than they are hiring lawyers on the compliance end. I think we have set this thing in a way in which is very injurious to the extension of credit. But let me raise one other issue, which was mentioned by our ranking member, Ms. Waters. Today, Congressman Jared Huffman and I are going to reintroduce a bill which corrects a disparity between banks and credit unions in the treatment of loans made to finance the purchase of small apartment buildings known as non-owner-occupied one- to four-unit buildings. And, specifically, the bill removes these loans from the calculation of the member business lending cap imposed on credit unions. So I am wondering if I can ask our credit union witnesses if this bipartisan bill will help increase credit availability for commercial businesses and for rental housing without costing taxpayers a dime. Mr. Miller. The short answer is, yes, it will. The overwhelming majority of these types of loans go to regular, average, working Americans who have just done well enough in life where they can afford to buy a rental property or they move into a new home and they want to convert a dwelling that they were in into a multifamily dwelling, and they are just regular folks. They are not running big businesses. They are not real estate investment trusts. And it would free up capital for credit unions to do more member business lending and generate more jobs. Ms. LaMascus. Thank you very much, sir, for doing that for credit unions. Our credit union does not currently offer member business loans, but we will, and that will be important to us. May I make a couple more comments on the compliance for you? Mr. Royce. Absolutely. Ms. LaMascus. I found it very interesting what you were saying. First off, within the last couple of years, two very small credit unions found themselves having to merge, and they were are able to merge with Patriot Federal Credit Union. One was only $6.5 million in assets; one was $11 million. They just could not keep up with the regulations and also be able to provide services to their members. In addition to the things that Mr. Miller has done, we have had to hire 2 full-time compliance officers within the last 3 years. I just hired another person. About 50 percent of his time will be spent on compliance. Mr. Royce. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Cleaver, ranking member of our Housing and Insurance Subcommittee. Mr. Cleaver. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me, first of all, thank you all for being here. As Mr. Lynch said, these committee hearings are designed for the receipt of information that will help us do our work. I want to associate myself with the comments of my colleague Mr. Green, who talked about the very difficult task of separating the small banks, community banks, and credit unions from the humongous banks, the ones that are probably ``too-brute-to-prosecute.'' But I want to just tell you, I don't know if any of you are sports fans, or whether or not you have paid attention to the fact that yesterday Chris Borland, a 24-year-old linebacker for the world-champ Patriots, retired after one season. He made some comments that I think are profound about the game. ``I played the game. As a result, last January 6th, I had my 7th operation on my left knee, and 2 on my right shoulder. It is a tough game.'' I don't know, Ms. LaMascus, if you have ever been hit by a 245-pound linebacker running at full speed. Ms. LaMascus. Not lately. Mr. Cleaver. Yes. It is not fun. I have been hit by those-- two of those games played in Lubbock. But the NFL responded to the retirement of Borland by saying that they are continuing to redesign the rules. Now, when I played, you could go low and hit someone just about anyplace. They will not allow clipping anymore. You used to be able to hit people in the backfield, which you can't do anymore, at least not from behind. They are continuing to change the rules trying to protect the players. I have a friend, Otis Taylor. I went to school with him. He is an all-pro wide receiver who can't get out of bed today. Many of you remember Earl Campbell, particularly the Texans, I am sure, our chairman, Mr. Neugebauer, and Mr. Green. Great running back. Can't even walk anymore. You have to roll him on the field during the annual Old Timers' Day at the stadium in Houston. The rules are being redesigned. People are trying to protect the players. It is a brutal game. Are all of you in favor of trying to come up with rules to protect the players? Whether you played the game or not, if you watched it, do you agree with me that changing the rules is okay? And the helmets are now much more expensive. They are trying to design helmets that will reduce the likelihood of someone getting one of these hits to the head that will affect them for the rest of their lives. So should the NFL continue to try to design rules to protect the players? Mr. Fenderson. Yes, sir. Mr. Cleaver. Does anybody disagree? Mr. Williams. Yes, we agree. I agree. Mr. Cleaver. Because people are getting hurt. Is it-- Mr. Fenderson. Yes, sir. Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Ms. LaMascus. Yes. Mr. Levitin. Yes. Mr. Cleaver. No one disagrees. Mr. Fenderson. Might I expand on that? I would like the ability to be able to get out of bed tomorrow, walk into our bank, and continue to service the customers that we serve. What we are asking Congress to consider is tailoring legislation that matches my business model. We didn't to secure title to mortgages. We accept deposits, we make loans. That is how we meet the needs of our community. We make mortgage loans that we portfolio. We make automobile loans that we portfolio. Mr. Cleaver. Yes. But I want you to harken back to--I harken back to what Mr. Green said earlier. We can't have this hearing and disregard the fact that the thing that separates the things that many of us would like to do, which is to remove the burdens from you--and I am not sure that--and maybe we are not articulating well enough the challenge of trying to get something to do that. I think that if we paused, the five of you would have difficulty coming to an agreement on how do we separate the ``too-brute-to-prosecute'' from community banks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for going over my time. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Fitzpatrick. I thank the chairman. And I also want to thank the panel members who have given testimony here today, especially the community bankers and the credit union professionals who meet with our constituents and help them, provide the credit to start their small and family- owned businesses and buy their first homes. And I wanted to follow up on one of the comments, actually, from the committee to the panel, that credit unions are fewer in number today because of strength and growth and because they have gone on to perhaps merge with a larger entity. And I am sure in an occasional case, that is true. We could probably point to one. Ms. LaMascus, in your testimony you stated that the impact of this growing compliance, which is the subject of this hearing, is evident as the number of credit unions continues to decline, dropping by 23 percent. You said dropping by--I think you said 1,800 since 2007. Is that correct? Ms. LaMascus. 1,200. Mr. Fitzpatrick. 1,200? And those 1,200, they don't cease to exist today because of strength and growth in the economy or that they have gone on to become some different or larger charter or entity. Why do they not exist? Ms. LaMascus. They can't keep up with regulations, is one huge reason. They don't have the staff, they don't have the resources to be able to study them, to implement them, to pay for them, and also be able to provide the services to their members. They just don't have the resources to do it. And, frankly, that is why I advocate for smart regulations. I would agree, we don't want people to be hurt. But we do believe that smart regulations make more sense. That is why we believe that for you to require regulators to do lookback cost-benefit analyses so that they can document, show us why they are recommending or planning to put in place what they are, we could give better, more targeted feedback. I believe, then, that it would be more collaborative, and less confrontational, because we all do want to protect and help the consumer. We could do this together. And then hopefully, we will learn from that, and then later we can go back and revisit and modify where the costs were greatly underestimated. So we believe that smarter regs make more sense. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Ms. LaMascus, my district is not far from where you do business. I represent southeastern Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Montgomery County. And I was thinking, as you were testifying, about a small credit union that I represent, the Ukrainian Selfreliance Federal Credit Union. It probably has less than 10,000 members, less than--or maybe $250 million in assets. And the individuals who come here, new citizens, new residents of Pennsylvania and of the United States, many times are going straight to that credit union for the cultural background, the language. And they are not going to be acquired by some larger entity. They are struggling to cover these compliance costs, the same compliance costs that the big companies can cover, but they are doing it with much smaller, sort of, cost- effectiveness. And I worry about, where will these individuals who go to Ukrainian Selfreliance today, where will they go? Ms. LaMascus. Unless they can qualify to join another credit union, or if it is a merger, they will have to find someplace else to go, likely to someplace that doesn't know them and is not able or willing to do for them what their credit union can. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Right. Mr. Williams, you were talking about--you referred to the HMDA reports. Increasing the amount of information for HMDA reports adds to the cost of doing business-- Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Mr. Fitzpatrick. --for community bankers; is that true? Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Fenderson, do you agree? Mr. Fenderson. Yes, it does. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Do you believe that these demands translate to better homeowner lending? Mr. Fenderson. I do not believe they translate into better home loan lending. Anytime you add a checklist upon checklist upon checklist, our bank is subject to have to spend more time on that, and, therefore, we are not able to help as many customers as we would like. Mr. Williams. If I could follow up, we have had to go to a full-time employee just for HMDA reporting in anticipation of the expanded areas we need to report on. Mr. Fenderson. Of specific note, I would say that currently, HMDA data is collected on banks that are $43 million and larger in size. And that is a--I don't know when that was enacted, but it is probably not a modern number. That probably should be looked at. And, I think, does 25 or more mortgage loans a year, which is not modern. Mr. Fitzpatrick. I am out of time. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Washington, Mr. Heck. Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I actually am not satisfied to wait for entry into the record the answer to Mr. Sherman's question, so I want to take you back to it, if I may. I think where he ended when his time ran out was, is it true when there has been a breach of a retailer's system that you, the financial institutions, are on the hook to make the consumer whole? Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Fenderson. Absolutely. We spent $8,000 because of the Home Depot breach. Mr. Heck. How much? Mr. Fenderson. $8,000. Mr. Williams. We spent a great deal more than that. Mr. Miller. We spent more that $150,000 on the Target breach. Mr. Williams. It was significant. Mr. Levitin. I think it is actually a little more complicated. Consumers-- Mr. Heck. I am going to get there. Mr. Levitin. Okay. Ms. LaMascus. Ours was about $42,000. Mr. Heck. Thank you for that. So what I hear from retailers is that they have to pay fines to the credit card companies, which they believe are intended to help cover some of the cost of the loss. Mr. Miller. If you can send me the information on where I can get that recovery, I would be very interested-- Mr. Heck. That is what I am getting at. Is it true that retailers pay fines to credit card companies when there has been a breach? And if it is true, have any of your ever seen any recovery? Professor, if this gets to where you were going to-- Mr. Levitin. Yes. It is true. If you want to see something published on it, I have an article for which I am happy to give you the citation about this. The consumer liability is capped by the Truth In Lending Act-- Mr. Heck. Right. Mr. Levitin. --and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act. So the consumer is not going to be out of--in most situations, the consumer will not be out of pocket. There are considerable collateral losses that occur in a data breach. Some of those get eaten by the financial institutions. A lot of them get eaten by merchants. Walmart's estimate for what a data breach costs is something like $100 per consumer. Mr. Heck. Does their loss-- Mr. Levitin. When it is millions, you are talking about real money there, when it is millions of records. Mr. Heck. Okay. But I heard all of them say they have not recovered from-- Mr. Fenderson. Yes, we are not Walmart, unfortunately, and we don't have the dollars that they do. Mr. Heck. Yes. Well, I am getting back at his point, though. None of them said they got any recovery. You said it was-- Mr. Levitin. Oh, no, no. I am saying Walmart--usually, it is the retailer that eats most of the cost of the data breach. Banks eat a small bit of it, but it is mainly the retailers. Mr. Williams. I would disagree. We suffered-- Mr. Miller. The biggest cost is reputation risk that--it is our card that the member swiped, and we are the ones that have to call them. We can't tell them which retailer it was that caused the data breach to their information-- Mr. Heck. All right. Mr. Miller. --so we are the ones that take the reputation hit. Mr. Williams. And we have to replace all the cards that have been breached, not just the ones that actual fraud has been perpetuated on. Ms. LaMascus. And Walmart is not protecting our members. We are. And I agree with whoever said it down there, our members want to know who did this, who caused it, because they don't want to do business there anymore, and we can't tell hem. Mr. Levitin. There are technology changes that-- Mr. Heck. I have more questions and limited time, but I do think that this exchange indicates: one, a problem; two, a complexity to the problem; and three, a very worthy subject of consideration. I just want to note for the record that there are other committees in the House of Representatives taking this up. It would be, I think, nice, if I can use this as a friendly suggestion, that this committee that has significant interest in the financial sector could exam it from the standpoint of its impact on you. Professor, I read your testimony, I listened, and you make a case. But I am wondering if you would at least acknowledge that there are significant compliance costs, whether or not that is the reason, as you argue against--and I followed that logic chain--there are significant compliance costs placed on small institutions. Mr. Levitin. Absolutely. And I appreciate that you picked up on the subtle difference between whether it is the real cause of these institutions' problems or whether--I make no argument that there are no compliance costs. There are serious compliance costs. Mr. Heck. Thank you. That is all I needed. Lastly, for anybody from the institutions, I am concerned that smaller institutions are being required to exit certain lines of business and become more specialized, and therefore more concentrated. I wonder if that is your perspective? And, do you think it may have a material impact on safety and soundness if you are becoming more concentrated as economies of scale disallow, prohibit, or impede your entry to other areas? That is a great question to finish on with my time running out. Mr. Miller. The short answer is, yes, it is going to cause some credit unions to get out of mortgage lending because of the QM rules. So they are going to be more concentrated in car loans and credit cards. Mr. Heck. Is your safety and soundness affected? Mr. Miller. Yes. When you take away the ability to have multiple lines of business and concentrate them in fewer, you create more risk. Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Westmoreland. Mr. Westmoreland. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Professor, are you still on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Board? Are you still a member of that? Mr. Levitin. I am a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Consumer Advisory Board, yes. Mr. Westmoreland. Okay. So you do represent-- Mr. Levitin. No, I do not, sir. I am here today solely in my individual capacity. I have no authority whatsoever to speak for the Advisory Board, and the Advisory Board is an independent body from the Bureau itself. Mr. Westmoreland. But you are on that Board, correct? Mr. Levitin. I am on the Board, as well as the president of American Express, as well as the president-- Mr. Westmoreland. No, that is okay. I just wanted to know if you were. I don't want to know the rest of them. The gentleman from Missouri made a great analogy about the NFL changing rules to keep players from getting hurt. It seems to me the CFPB is protecting the people in the stands while the players on the field are getting clipped and getting hurt. And so, if your objective or if our objective is to save the players on the field, I think these gentlemen and the lady are the players on the field. I want to ask a question, and start with you, Mr. Fenderson, and we will just go straight down the line. If an unbanked person came into your bank on a Monday and said that his or her car was broken down on the side of the road, and they needed $150 to get it fixed, and they would pay you back Friday, would you make that person that loan? Mr. Fenderson. Yes, we would. We have a small-dollar loan program. Mr. Westmoreland. And what would be the charge on that? Mr. Fenderson. For unsecured lending, 18 percent. Mr. Westmoreland. How much? Mr. Fenderson. 18 percent. Mr. Westmoreland. 18 percent. Would you, the credit union, make that? Mr. Miller. Yes, we would. And I don't know the specific rate, but I can get back to you on that on a follow-up. Mr. Westmoreland. Okay. Mr. Miller. I have another comment regarding Mr. Cleaver's testimony and Mr. Green's testimony. I believe a $50 billion bank or credit union looks a lot more like a $10 billion bank than any way that it would resemble a $1 trillion mega-bank. Mr. Westmoreland. Okay. Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Yes. We don't have a minimum loan. We would make it. And, in Texas, we would make it at 17\1/2\ percent because 18 percent is usurious. Mr. Westmoreland. Ma'am? Ms. LaMascus. Yes, we would make it, and it could be up to 18 percent. But I would like to make one other comment, as well. We are talking about the cost of regulation on our institution, and that is a serious concern. But it does also impact the consumer, because all the procedures, all the processes, all the checklists, and all the things that we can and can't do get between us and our members. We can't really spend that time with them finding ways that we can better help them with their financial situation because of regulations. Mr. Westmoreland. Professor, would 18 percent be a fair interest rate for that? Mr. Levitin. Sure. I don't have any problem with 18 percent. Mr. Westmoreland. Okay. Mr. Levitin. That is actually by Federal regulation that they are capped at 18 percent. Mr. Westmoreland. So you-- Mr. Levitin. I want to say, I liked your analogy with the ball game, protecting the fans. We do that. When you go to a hockey game, they have a wall so the fans don't get hit by a puck. Mr. Westmoreland. Thank you. Mr. Fenderson, you made reference to several of the bills that our colleagues are going to introduce. I am planning on reintroducing the Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act. I don't know if you are familiar with that, but Mrs. Capito, who is now in the Senate, had introduced that in the last Congress. And there is a section in there that talks about non- accrual loans, where you have a loan that is current but then the regulators come in and tell you for certain reasons, you have to put it in a non-accrual. Does that hurt your bank when you have to do that? Mr. Fenderson. It does. It is a tremendous drain where we were accruing for that loan and, therefore, recognizing the income, and, therefore, we are not able to recognize that income. Mr. Westmoreland. Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Yes, I agree, clearly. Mr. Westmoreland. Would you have any problem with that being in the bill, these regulations that say a current loan would have to be some way put into a non-accrual status--would not have to be put into a non-accrual? Mr. Fenderson. What we would like to have is the ability to manage, and manage our own risk. And by doing that, if we think that loan is a problem, we will probably place it in non- accrual on our own. Mr. Westmoreland. Okay. Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. We would have a very similar situation. We would think we would have already identified it and we wouldn't need a regulator to do so. Mr. Westmoreland. Okay. Thank you, and I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Vargas. Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I am also happy that my colleague from Missouri has left, because I was a 245-pound lineman and linebacker. But I guess the only thing I--and I am not trying to make any points here today, so I don't have any bones to pick, other than one for Latin. I think you were looking at ``post hoc ergo propter hoc.'' That is the logical fallacy that I was thinking that you were thinking of when you were thinking of ``after this, therefore because of this.'' Mr. Levitin. You got it. And what is really embarrassing about this is, back in 8th grade, I won a Latin competition. Mr. Vargas. Oh, okay. I listened to all the testimony today, and I think we are-- there is a lot of goodwill, I think, in trying to figure out how to treat smaller financial institutions differently and whether the exemptions that exist now in the CFPB are robust enough, really, to handle their problem. And it seems that the testimony here is saying, no, they are not. They haven't gone far enough. Professor, why don't you comment on that? Because I think that is what we are getting to here, that you can't treat a bank with an ``M'' the same as one with a big ``B,'' when you talked about $60 billion or $60 million. They are different banks. Mr. Levitin. Oh, absolutely, I would agree with you. I think I am trying to make--there are two points I would make. The first is that yes, there are real--regulation causes difficulties for smaller financial institutions. It is not their main problem, but it does cause difficulties for them. We should be thinking about ways to ease their regulatory burdens. We need to do it in a way that it doesn't cost consumers important protections. The current way regulations work right now is we have a table full of representatives of regulated depositories. They are not the only actors in the market. There are also non-banks, and the non-banks are subject to the same statutes. So for example, the Qualified Mortgage rule, which is an exception to the ability--that isn't just for banks and credit unions. It is also for the hard money lenders that have historically been rather predatory in their lending. It would be, I think, a totally reasonable thing to make clear by statute that the CFPB could exempt regulated depositories and credit unions from certain rules--the CFPB doesn't think that it has that authority currently. That would be a sensible way to proceed, and then let the agency exercise more discretion about this. Mr. Vargas. I think we need to look at that, because I listened to Mr. Fenderson, and I understand his issue. I think he is here saying, we have a lot of people I could really loan to, and the bank should be loaning to them, but I really can't at this moment. The regulations that are on me are too rough; I would have to hire another person. It is very costly. I can't do that. I actually represent the border in California, and we have our own special set of problems there because of potential money laundering. A lot of the big banks are going out of that area because of those regulations, so I do think that there is something that has to be done and maybe there is some middle ground here to be reached. Mr. Levitin. I think it is important to look at the size threshold, $50 billion is a very, very large bank. $10 billion which is often used--for $10 billion, you could buy the Cowboys, the Patriots, and the Giants, and have some money to spare. You would own three different football teams, but that is not a community bank. Mr. Vargas. No, I understood that. In fact, some of the questions-- Mr. Miller. Can I make a comment on that? The assets of a $10 billion credit union do not represent the equity of a $10 billion dollar credit union. They are more like $1 billion in assets; they can't go buy the Patriots. Mr. Vargas. In fact, I think that is why the nature of the institution is important. I think that is what they were getting to when the questions were being asked earlier--is a $50 billion bank a community bank? Mr. Miller. It looks a lot more like a community bank than a $1 trillion mega-bank with hundreds of thousands of employees. Mr. Vargas. Thank you, sir. I do understand that. But I think that is why the question was difficult. Mr. Fenderson, you wanted to say something? Mr. Fenderson. I would say, again, the emphasis has to be on the business model. Regulators are well-trained to do their jobs. I think Congress can help make sure they are put in a lane where they get the flexibility to regulate us the way we need to be regulated, based on our business model and the risks that we take. Mr. Vargas. I believe someone else had their hand up. Ms. LaMascus. Yes, thank you. In my testimony, I referred to credit unions being, regardless of size, a cooperative institution organized for the purpose of promoting thrift among its members and creating a source of credit for provident and productive purposes. There is not a thing in there that says I should be having to spend 25 or more percent of my time figuring out regulation and implementing them. Dodd-Frank gave CFPB the exemption-- Mr. Vargas. I don't want to cut you off, but I don't want to go over my time. Ms. LaMascus. Thank you. Chairman Hensarling. The gentleman yields back. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Hultgren. Mr. Hultgren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all so much for being here. I appreciate your time and your input in this very important issue, just to discuss Dodd-Frank and absolutely necessary regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions. I have come to strongly believe that Dodd-Frank is damaging our economy and is slowing our Nation's economic recovery. Dodd-Frank's current regulations and guidelines span 8,231 pages. I think that is just 60 percent about of what is coming. Our Nation's job creators will spend $60 million labor hours and employ 30,000 workers to navigate this bureaucratic minefield. Unfortunately, community banks and credit unions which help people access the American dream have been disproportionately hurt by Dodd-Frank. These institutions provide almost half of small business loans and serve 1,200 rural counties that otherwise would have limited options. Without them, as we have heard today, many responsible Americans would not be able to own a home, start a business, or preserve a family farm. Community financial institutions depend on personal relationships and local knowledge of their community to lend. This means they can tailor-make loans to fit their customers' needs. This lending model actually works. These lenders know your story, know your business, and know exactly what kind of loan you need. Large banks often can't follow that lending model. Their size forces them to make simple, plain vanilla loans, and disproportionately consult statistics like income or credit score to evaluate borrowers. Our economy absolutely needs both kinds of lending. Unfortunately, parts of Dodd-Frank target the relationship lending model by forcing these smaller institutions into regulatory straitjackets, tailor-made for big banks. For example, in my home State of Illinois, Robert Smith of Soy Capital Bank and Trust Company has told us that the Qualified Mortgage rule has reduced their ability to make mortgage exceptions to people with unique circumstances, even though they can afford the loan. Real lives are disrupted along the way as banks reduce lending, merge with competitors or shut down. Thankfully, there are bipartisan solutions to provide much-needed relief to community banks and credit unions. My constituents in the 14th Congressional District of Illinois are desperate for real solutions here, so I am grateful for the opportunity to explore them with each of you today. I am going to address my first question to Mr. Williams, and then if Mr. Fenderson, Mr. Miller, and Ms. Bosma-LaMascus could also comment. Proponents of regulatory relief can be painted as being against consumer protection and eager to return policies that cause a financial crisis. I find this narrative ridiculous, including when it comes to regulatory relief for community financial institutions. Consumers need regulatory protection. We all agree with that, but these institutions were not the cause of the financial crisis such as subprime lending, securitization or derivatives. Will targeted regulatory relief for small banks and credit unions return us to policies that cause the financial crisis, do you think? I will start with Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams. It would not. It is a difficult question to answer, Congressman, but we need the relief so we can provide the services to our customers. I agree with everything you have said. We know our customers and we are going to try to find ways to make the loans. What has happened is examples in Dodd- Frank under QM have made it difficult for us to approve those credits. Mr. Fenderson. The flexibility to do our jobs and serve the customers that we serve is all we are asking for. And that obviously comes in the form of relief because of the unintended consequences that we deal with. Let me be clear, small institutions, as everyone knows, are not regulated by the CFPB. However, the rules that they regulate create a playing field in which we have to participate. Mr. Hultgren. Let me get on to my next question--probably you all would echo similar things here. This is personal for me--my family owns a funeral home, I grew up in a family funeral home, and I am convinced that my mom and dad would not have been able to purchase that funeral home in the mid-1970s, but for a local community banker who saw something special in them. The idea of judgment, being able to know a person, know a community, and be able to make a decision, Dodd-Frank takes that away, takes that ability away to be able to know a customer, have a business, not a model, know a community, and be able to make those decisions. To me, that is tragic. I think it also is reflected in the fact that the lowest number of business startups that we are seeing in 3 decades is part of this problem. Let me touch quickly on, community financial institutions don't need the same regulations as large ones. As Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo has said, many rules and examinations that are important for institutions that are larger do not make sense in light of the nature of the risk to community banks. A question would be, could we have some sort of tiered regulation, should we give Federal Reserve or other regulatory agencies clear legislative authorization? We just have a few seconds, so if any of you have any thoughts? Mr. Miller. The short answer is yes, because we didn't create the problem, and all of us combined as small community banks and credit unions don't add up to the systemic risk created by the large banks. Mr. Williams. Absolutely, yes. Mr. Hultgren. My time has expired. Thank you for being here. I know it takes courage sometimes to come out and talk about these things. We need your voice. I yield back to the chairman. Thank you. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Huizenga, chairman of our Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee. Mr. Huizenga. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. And gentleman, I'm sorry, but ironically, I had to step out to introduce a constituent at the Small Business Committee, which is dealing with conflicting regulations from the EPA and the Department of Energy. This is the frustration that I have, is we have so many of those circumstances, even here in the financial services world. Mr. Fenderson, it struck me, you were discussing how smaller institutions are exempt; we know that, right? But it sets a new bar, doesn't it? It sets a new regulatory bar. When we had Mr. Cordray in here earlier, I was exploring some of this with him and expressing to him why many of the companies that I talked to in Michigan want to talk anonymously. He seemed a little confused by that, why anybody would want to be anonymous in their criticism. I think anybody who has dealt with that knows exactly why you want to be anonymous on that. But he couldn't seem to understand that was the new floor that was being set, the new bar that was being set. And I think that is something we have to be very diligent about. I want to hit a little bit on Qualified Mortgages. And we have examples, I have one here from Michigan, anonymous, as you can imagine. Sixty percent of their mortgages are to members of the credit union, members with under a 600 credit score, but they charge the same interest rates, and this is in a small, poorer, rural area, and they are looking at dropping even offering those credit opportunities. A closing fee of $50 plus whatever a third-party vendor charges. But suddenly they are finding these criteria and they are not matching up. I am curious for any of the four of you, are you going to be offering non-Qualified Mortgages, or if not, why not? You have talked a little bit about QM. Mr. Williams. Congressman, we do offer them, we do offer non-QM loans. Mr. Huizenga. And will you continue to do that? Mr. Williams. Yes, we will continue, but that doesn't matter. Almost all of the banks are dropping out of it because they are fearful of not being able to obtain the safe harbors that QM offers. The important thing is we need to get QM dropped on portfolio loans that we underwrite, and we are willing to accept that credit risk. Mr. Huizenga. Any others? Mr. Fenderson. We absolutely will continue to make those loans, it is a market that we serve. It is an expectation that we have and a part of the role that we play in the communities we serve. Mr. Huizenga. Others? Mr. Miller. We will do about half that we were before, because we, frankly, are fearful of the regulatory scrutiny. Ms. LaMascus. We are not yet within the requirements for it, but we will be. And I would anticipate that we would make QM loans. The thing that is fortunate for us is we will have time to see how case law plays out on this and make a better business decision at that time, but that is the problem is trying to determine what is the level of risk? Mr. Huizenga. Mr. Miller, you might have hit on, what are-- my follow-up question is, what are the costs to your members and/or your customers? You are saying that maybe half of the people you would have serviced, you are not going to be able to, because you are afraid of that additional scrutiny and maybe from some of the others--the trade-offs that-- Mr. Miller. We may even lose a relationship because we made a business decision, not in Oxnard, California, but it was made for us in Washington, and the member gets mad at us because we said no, when we said yes to them the last 3 times they have come in to do a mortgage over the last 20 years. That is frustrating. They have to go somewhere else and it will probably cost them more. Mr. Huizenga. My colleague-- Mr. Miller. If they can get it at all. Mr. Huizenga. --Mr. Hultgren was talking about his small family business. I have a small family business, a third- generation as well. I am really concerned about what impact recent mortgage rules are going to have on small businesses in the community and their ability to be small business owners, to be community leaders. Anybody on the panel? Mr. Williams. I would like to follow up and say that a lot of these loans we make are nonconforming markets that are rural, and if we don't make them, nobody will. Mr. Huizenga. So you are willing to take that additional risk to make sure that you are servicing your community? Mr. Williams. Yes, and we understand the risk. We underwrite it and that is what we do. Mr. Miller. I would say we also, everyone at this table is probably good at underwriting. Over a 6-year period beginning in 2009, we are a $400 million credit union, we do a lot of mortgage loans, we had a total of $339,000 of charge-offs for mortgages, less than one-tenth of 1 percent. I would offer a thought that we respectfully appreciate the help, but I think we are pretty good at underwriting mortgage loans. We don't need more regulations to help us do that. Mr. Huizenga. Mr. Fenderson, quickly? Mr. Fenderson. I just wanted to quickly say that we will make small business loans whether it pulls us into the question of adding HMDA data or not. That is the only way we understand the rule to suggest that we bring in QM, because a business loan is not a consumer transaction. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Pittenger. Mr. Pittenger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank each of the witnesses for your public service and for being with us today. Last week, I had the occasion of meeting with a small community bank in my district, with the president and the credit officer there. Mr. Chairman, for the record, I would like to introduce a memo that they have provided. Chairman Hensarling. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. Pittenger. The discussion we had was frankly very informative but very alarming to appreciate the real challenges and difficulty that each of you go through. I am going to read a bit of his comments. I videotaped it, and then we have transcribed the comments. It was so amazing to me what, regrettably, he had to say. He said, ``We are a $145 million bank, with 2 branches and 27 employees. We all spend time with customers trying to build our business. But the sheer complexity in the mortgage system makes it almost impossible for an entity of our size to appropriately meet all these regulations. This is the ability to repay a Qualified Mortgage rule, small entity guide''--and he held it up, this guide is 56 pages. There have been, since it was published on August 14, 2013, 4 pages of additional rules that have been added. If based on this guide you meet certain criteria, you have to provide an escrow account for an individual's taxes and insurance on their mortgage. If you want to do this, there is another small entity guide for the TILA-RESPA. That is another 91 pages, and he held it up. If you want to pay your mortgage originator, then you have the 80-page small entity guide, and he held that up for the 2013 loan origination. For all of these guides, there is a paragraph that is contained in all of it. There are other guides that apply to the mortgage loans as well. That basic paragraph says, ``This guide's summarizes the ATR QM rule, but is not a substitute for the rule.'' Essentially, it says you must refer to the final rule. The final rule is 185 pages long. The final rule then refers to the Act. The Act, of course, is thousands of pages. As I said earlier, it is longer than the Bible. So our ability to understand all of these rules and appropriately follow them is very difficult to do. And he said, ``Congressman, do whatever you can. Help us out.'' I would just like to know if this is your experience as well, Mr. Fenderson, Mr. Williams, and any of the rest of you, Mr. Miller? Mr. Fenderson. I would say that you explained a very real scenario in which as a banker, we not only--our credential regulator is the OCC. They have regulation that they are sharing with us that we have to understand and interpret, and then we have the rules from the CFPB that we have to learn and understand. And so that creates a volume of information such that if you have 27 employees, which happens to be exactly what we have, it becomes difficult. We only have one person who is dedicated to compliance. We had to add that person in order to try to be prepared for the regulations that are coming down the pike. Mr. Pittenger. Another cost burden to you. Mr. Fenderson. Absolutely. Mr. Pittenger. Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Clearly we are seeing in our area, 11 percent of banks are just getting out of the business that once were in the business of making single-family residential loans. We had the wheel invented, we are staying in it, but the point is, we have a long relationship with our rural customers. We understand them, we know who is going to repay and who is not, and we are going to stick with them. That doesn't matter, too many banks are getting out of it simply over, we are not going to make QM loans. Mr. Pittenger. How many man-hours would you say a year is added to your compliance requirements? Mr. Williams. We had one compliance officer 5 years ago; today, we have six. Mr. Pittenger. Mr. Miller, do you want to make a comment? Mr. Miller. We haven't grown our compliance department as aggressively as Mr. Williams' bank has, but we are heading down that road. Ms. LaMascus. NCUA has estimated that it will take 40 hours to review the 450-page proposal regarding our call reports under the new risk-based capital they are proposing. When you mentioned the Bible, it made me think of something that I was thinking about yesterday: Envision 450 pages. That is almost a ream of paper that you get in a standard package. Good luck! Someone might be able to read it in 40 hours, but to understand it, figure out how it is going to impact your operation and all of the changes you have to make, 40 hours is nothing toward the additional labor this costs. I was thinking when I thought of that much paper, of the Old Testament. It is huge, and 40 hours does not adequately describe the number of hours. Mr. Pittenger. Longer than the Bible, but none of the good news. Ms. LaMascus. That is right, that is right. Chairman Hensarling. Regrettably, the time of the gentlemen has expired. See if you can top that. The gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Barr, is now recognized. Mr. Barr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses and the organizations that you all represent for your endorsement of several pieces of legislation. We have introduced the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, the HELP Rural Communities Act, and the American Jobs and Community Revitalization Act. The law professor's testimony today was that Dodd-Frank and regulations are not the cause of the decrease in the number of community banks and credit unions in America. He has gone to great lengths, it seems, to distinguish between causation and correlation. And when I was in law school, I preferred the Socratic method to lecture classes. So let's do a little bit of Socratic method right here down the row of our witnesses. Since the enactment of Dodd-Frank and the Qualified Mortgage rules, have your compliance costs increased or decreased, Mr. Fenderson? Mr. Fenderson. Our compliance costs have increased. Mr. Barr. Mr. Miller? Mr. Miller. Increased by more than $100,000. Mr. Barr. Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Increased by probably 15 to 20 percent. Mr. Barr. And Ms. LaMascus? Ms. LaMascus. Increased by at least $250,000. Mr. Barr. Have you had to hire more or less compliance officers, Mr. Fenderson? Mr. Fenderson. More. Mr. Miller. More. Mr. Williams. More. Ms. LaMascus. I have hired two more, and just hired another one, and 50 percent of his time will be on compliance. Mr. Barr. And since the finalization of the Qualified Mortgage rule, has the volume of your mortgage originations increased or decreased? Mr. Fenderson. Ours has remained roughly the same, but we have not made as many mortgages. Mr. Miller. We are also about the same, but we have a lost opportunity cost because we have had to turn away 50 members. Mr. Williams. Our volume is static, we are making about the same number of loans, but we are still turning down loans. Ms. LaMascus. Decreased. Mr. Barr. And has the cost of borrowing for your customers, if you are remaining static, increased or decreased? Mr. Fenderson. Unfortunately, we are in a heavily competitive market, so it has not gone up cost wise, per se, because in order to get that loan on the books, we have to be competitive. Mr. Miller. We have also had to be competitive with rates, so our margins have suffered. Mr. Williams. Our margins have suffered, but the costs have gone up, primarily on appraisals. Ms. LaMascus. Costs have gone up and margins have declined. Mr. Barr. And my final question, do higher compliance costs and the compromising of your business model that you had before Dodd-Frank make it more likely or less likely that a small community bank or credit union like yours will fail? Mr. Fenderson. I would say that most institutions that are well-run would have an opportunity to merge before they fail. Mr. Barr. Okay. Merge or fail, that is a good point. Mr. Fenderson. Yes. Mr. Miller. More likely. Mr. Williams. More likely. Ms. LaMascus. More likely. Mr. Williams. As a matter of fact, we did merge, specifically because we had two banks, and with the cost, we felt like the economies made a lot of sense. Mr. Barr. With respect to the portfolio lending idea that we have proposed, the professor blames portfolio loans on the financial crisis. What do you think was the principal cause of the financial crisis? Portfolio loans or the originate to distribute model that was fueled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that allowed for purchases of billions of these subprime mortgages, unlike portfolio loans that were not properly underwritten? In other words, just as a summary, what was the root cause of the financial crisis? Was it portfolio loans, or was it GSEs fueling subprime origination? I will just ask Mr. Williams on that one. Mr. Williams. GSEs, subprime. Mr. Barr. Okay. Does anybody disagree with that? Mr. Levitin. Yes, sir. Mr. Barr. Well, besides the professor. We heard your testimony, sir. Mr. Levitin. I don't think you actually characterized what I said correctly. Mr. Barr. We heard your testimony. Mr. Levitin. You mischaracterized it. I did not say portfolio-- Mr. Barr. I heard your testimony. I have one minute left. Let me just ask you this about Professor Levitin's arguments against the bill and Director Cordray's as well. What do you think the likelihood is that your institutions would make ill- advised loans if you have to retain the credit risk? Remember, this is on your members and on your shareholders. Is it more likely that you would make ill-advised loans if you know you have to retain the credit risk? Mr. Fenderson, we will start with you. Mr. Fenderson. The mortgages that we make and hold in portfolio are obviously loans that impact the long-term nature of our balance sheet and its quality, so we will continue to make those loans. Mr. Barr. Mr. Miller? Mr. Miller. It is less likely. Once again, I offer our mortgage charge-off figure, over a 6-year period for a $400 million credit union, was $339,000, less than one-tenth of 1 percent. We are pretty good at evaluating risk in our portfolio. Mr. Barr. Mr. Williams, in anticipating your similar response, could you also add to that? Are you in a better position to assess the credit risk of your customers as a community bank knowing your customers than the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington? Mr. Williams. Yes, we are, and our business is to make good loans. Ms. LaMascus. We know our members, we make good loans, and we don't differentiate with our underwriting whether we are going to keep them in portfolio or sell them off in the secondary market. We use equally, credible underwriting. Mr. Barr. My time has expired. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Rothfus. Mr. Rothfus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start by thanking you all for appearing before the committee this morning and sharing your stories with the American people. Your experiences are important because they are illustrative of the problems that come about when you have a one-size-fits-all, Washington-knows-best approach to regulating community banking. Instead of institutions making reasoned decisions based on actual knowledge and long-standing relationships with their customers, the elites here in Washington, D.C., would rather have everyone fit into predetermined boxes or not have access to banking at all. This mindset has a direct impact on the ability of institutions to serve their local communities, particularly those in need. It dictates whether an institution will offer important services like free checking and overdraft protection, whether it can offer a mortgage for a first-time home buyer, or whether it can extend a loan to a promising startup business. In my district in Western Pennsylvania, for example, we have a credit union in Johnstown that ran into regulatory barriers when it was trying to rescue a deserving single mother from a mortgage that had been sold 4 different times with the interest rate increasing with each new lender. We also have a community bank in Pittsburgh that provides loans to small businesses. The institution does not offer prepackaged loans or loan terms, but rather every loan is specifically designed considering the facts, circumstances, and risks. The bank tried to set up a compensation system for its loan officers that rewarded them for building and maintaining relationships with their consumers. The FDIC, however, thinks that the system violates CFPB lending regulations, and the CFPB won't give the banks a straight answer. In the meantime, the bank isn't making many of these loans, and local small businesses are at a block. Finally, we have a community bank in Monroeville that recently calculated the amount of time that the institution had devoted to studying, analyzing, making changes, and training staff to comply with new CFPB regulations. The bank determined that it took over 2,000 hours, in other words, it took more than a year. Every hour spent doing this was nonproductive and took the bank staff away from meeting with customers and serving its community. To be clear, these institutions and the consumers they serve had nothing to do with the financial crisis, yet they are the ones that are being harmed the most by Dodd-Frank and the regulatory avalanche that has followed. And they are the ones that will suffer if the President continues to promise to veto any legislation that attempts to fix this under a misguided belief that Dodd-Frank is the next thing to gospel. Western Pennsylvanians want to say yes to commonsense reform, but Washington just continues to say no. Ms. Bosma-LaMascus, and also this is for Mr. Fenderson, since the passage of Dodd-Frank, fees have gone up for many products and services, making it increasingly difficult for middle-class and lower-income Americans to access banking services. For example, in 2009, 76 percent of banks offered free checking, but now, only 39 percent of banks offer that service. And the mandatory account balance to qualify for free checking has increased. Similarly, 76 percent of banks offered bank accounts free of charge in 2009, but this number has dropped to 38 percent following the passage of Dodd-Frank. I think that we would all agree that more needs to be done to ensure that people are not shut out of the mainstream banking system. So I would be interested to hear about your own experiences on this issue and how Dodd-Frank has negatively affected your ability to do this and what you are doing in response. Mr. Fenderson? Mr. Fenderson. Thank you very much. We have seen a steady reduction in what we call non-interest income, that is a source tied to overdraft fees and other ancillary fees. We did have to repeal and retire our free checking account because we frankly had to figure out a way to replace that revenue. The impact to the consumer is that they now have to pay for an account that they did not have to pay for before. So as an institution, unfortunately, we see the burden of our need to generate a return, which is a part of the safety and soundness earnings in order to continue to be in business. Mr. Rothfus. Ms. Bosma-LaMascus? Ms. LaMascus. We grandfathered our free checking accounts, so our members who already had them still have them. But also, in order to keep the cost down for our consumer members on a couple of our other share draft type checking account types, our members, when they use their debit card, can actually earn money back. So that is how we are able to continue to provide additional checking services for them, but we did do that. But that is why we have such concerns about debit cards and interchange and the fraud connected with them. Mr. Rothfus. Thank you, I yield back. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from New Hampshire, Mr. Guinta. Mr. Guinta. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for participating in this morning's hearing. I, too, share a deep concern about the regulatory environment and the burdens that affect my State and the credit unions and community banks that try to do business and provide access to credit to many families across New Hampshire. My State has about 26 different credit unions, and has about 36 different community banks. As a matter of fact, New Hampshire is the birthplace of the credit union, Saint Mary's Bank. I have recently spoken with other bank presidents, Rick Wallace from Piscataqua Savings Bank. I want to tell you a little bit about his story, and then I want to get some comments, both from the professor and from some others. He has one branch in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He is a small $230 million bank, less than 50 employees. The regulatory compliance requirements that have come out of Dodd-Frank have forced him to focus on meeting compliance rather than being focused on consumer access to credit, according to the bank president. He is telling me now that he is only making about half the loans that he used to prior to Dodd-Frank. And that his own cost analysis has determined that 25 percent of his bank resources are now going to compliance. So my question I first want to ask the professor is, do you believe that this regulatory environment, do you believe that is a true and accurate assessment of what he is communicating? And if you do agree, do you think that the regulatory environment is actually harmful in some circumstances to the actual end-user and consumer? Mr. Levitin. To answer your question, I have no reason to doubt what this bank president says about his lending volume. Regarding compliance costs, that is a very subjective and difficult measurement. I don't doubt his numbers, I just am not sure what they really represent. No one has a good way of measuring compliance cost, there is no definitive measure. As far as the ultimate question, though, are regulatory burdens harming smaller financial institutions? Yes, in some circumstances. They have real costs to small financial institutions. There are also benefits from some of the regulations, and we need to think about the proper balancing. You won't see any blanket objection from me to having regulatory relief for smaller financial institutions, but I think that the regulatory relief needs to be smart, it needs to be targeted, and it cannot come at the cost of consumer protection. Mr. Guinta. Could you identify maybe one or two regulatory relief items that we should pursue for small community banks? Mr. Levitin. Certainly. One thing that I think should go the way of the Dodo Bird are the Gramm-Leach-Bliley privacy notices. Nobody reads them. If anything, the only effect they have would be to lull consumers into thinking they actually have some privacy rights. There is no reason anyone, even the large banks, should spend money on giving those notices. Mr. Guinta. Ms. LaMascus, could you give me a little idea, from your perspective, on the two or three things that we should be doing to try to reduce the regulatory compliance to your industry? Ms. LaMascus. Yes, first, I am glad to hear Professor Levitin comment on smart regulations. I think we are making progress. If I were to limit to just three out of all the opportunities for improvement, NAFCU and member credit unions would request legislative capital reform, including supplemental capital. We would ask for field of membership relief, and that we pursue smarter regulation by requiring realistic robust cost and benefit analyses that we could provide better feedback and get smarter regulations. Mr. Guinta. And do you believe the lending volume decline, whether it is community banks or credit unions, is directly impacted by regulatory requirements in Dodd-Frank? Ms. LaMascus. Yes. I can give you an example. Mr. Guinta. Please do. Ms. LaMascus. I would like to actually go off of what someone said here--I think it was you--about the mortgage officers who were being compensated for the relationship and that type of thing. I think this is an example of how regulations get between the financial institutions and their customer members. A mortgage officer in a community bank or in a credit union is one of the best-positioned persons to know that person's financial condition and also to be able to see other ways that they can help them make better financial choices and actually save them money or enhance their return. So it is unfortunate that those people are being prohibited or discouraged from being able to further that relationship. Mr. Guinta. Thank you. I yield back. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Tipton. Mr. Tipton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank the panel for taking the time to be here. The professor just talked about having smart regulations. Yesterday, we had Secretary Lew before our committee. I found it a little bit surprising that the chairman of the FSOC, in not one of their hearings, ever spoke about community banks. Unfortunately, when we are talking about smart rules, smart regulations, we see Dodd-Frank roll up, and apparently our community banks are simply an afterthought when it comes to Washington, D.C., and the impacts that we are seeing. Do you think it would be in the interest, perhaps, of the Chairman of the FSOC to maybe pay attention to the community banks, Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Yes, I do, because the FDIC finding is that 94 percent of the banks in the United States are community banks. Mr. Tipton. Did you know when we are talking about regulations, we get focused here obviously on the financial services industry. When we look across-the-board, a report came out last year which said that $2 trillion is being paid in regulatory costs. Ultimately, those costs get passed on to consumers, which is stifling. Small businesses need opportunities to be able to grow. Is it your experience in your community--I visited with First Colorado National Bank in Delta, Colorado, a small community bank, and they are seeing more businesses shut down. In fact, we have a report that just came out that we are, for the first time, seeing more small businesses shut down in this country than there are new business startups. Is that going to impact your ability to be able to help your community? Mr. Williams. Are you speaking to me, Congressman? Obviously, if we see businesses shut down, that is jobs, that is everything. And yes, that is going to hurt our ability to be effective in our communities. We are in rural communities that are generally non-growth, so any time a business shuts down, it hurts the community because we don't have the jobs. Mr. Tipton. Thank you. Mr. Fenderson. Without question, as small businesses go, so does our local economy, and we understand there is an ecosystem to ensuring that we all have an opportunity to succeed. Mr. Tipton. When we are talking about small community banks, often simply as a matter of survival, and you spoke of this, Mr. Fenderson, about being able to consolidate, to get the economies of scale, I believe, Mr. Williams, that you had spoken about it also. We are looking at some legislation right now, I believe, Mr. Fenderson, you are already covered under this. The OCC has an 18-month exam cycle for well-run banks. Would it be sensible, as we see a need for that economy of scale, to be able to take up that 18-month cycle for examination up to, say, a $1 billion bank, would that be a good idea? Mr. Williams. Yes, sir, absolutely. Mr. Tipton. Would you support that? I know you have ambitions to grow that bank. Mr. Fenderson. I certainly would, and I think that the exam cycle needs to reflect the safety and soundness concerns of the business model, and therefore, it would make sense to extend that. And also attached to that, some turnaround time with respect to delivering the final report. Mr. Tipton. Great. I would like to talk a little bit about the Federal credit unions as well, a topic we haven't been able to cover here today. I recently heard that Partner Colorado Credit Union and Pikes Peak Credit Union were forced into a difficult situation right now. Partner Colorado Credit Union is close to surpassing the 100th international wire remittance in 2015, primarily due to 2 members who send wires twice a month. They must now decide whether or not to offer international wires to make a large change to their wire platform to become compliant with the International Wire Remittance Rules. Either way, the credit unions and their members actually lose. Mr. Miller, would you like to, maybe, address this first? Although I am confident there are several examples of burdensome regulations that don't necessarily apply to credit unions, can you give us some ideas and discussion on CFPB's International Remittance Transfer Rule? Mr. Miller. It is another example of majoring in the minors and focusing on a problem that really doesn't exist. People don't shop for a wire before they walk into the bank or credit union to place that instruction and get that money to somebody who really needs it. People send a wire because there is some kind of emergency or some kind of urgent need for the recipient to receive their funds. They are not going to use this half- hour waiting period to go shop and try to save $10 or $20; they want to get the money there, and they want to get it there now. Your constituent is looking down the barrel of having to double the cost for every one of those transactions that member is trying to do, and that is unfair to the consumer. Mr. Tipton. Ms. LaMascus? Any comment? Ms. LaMascus. We previously did just a few of the remittances. Whenever the changes came through, we did research it, and we found that for us to be able do it, it would have been cost-prohibitive. We could not see our members being able to justify, nor us justify doing for them, about $50 to transfer $100 or something like that. It didn't make sense. Mr. Tipton. It just simply echoes Ronald Reagan's words that we need to be frightened if the Federal Government is here to help. Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentleman has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams of Texas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank all of you for being here today. I am a small business owner in Texas, a job creator for 44 years, a Main Street guy, and in full disclosure, I am an auto dealer. And I understand that they are squeezing you to get to me, I get it. When a new regulation is put into place or a new law is enacted, banks or credit unions have to increase the amount of resources they devote to compliance. More regulators, I am told, are hired by some bankers than loan officers. While the stated purpose of these new laws and regulations is to protect consumers, the opposite is actually happening. Increasing regulation means two things: fewer products; and fewer services. For example, take Dublin, Texas, the home of Dr. Pepper, population just shy of 4,000. Bankers have told me that because of regulatory overreach, they won't make loans for homes valued at $150,000 or more, much less for $50,000, which is the average price in Dublin. And who does this impact? We know who it impacts. It impacts the seller, impacts the buyer, and the bank trying to make the loan. But what about the plumbers? What about the carpenters and electricians and local contractors and hardware stores that would benefit if we sold a home? So is it goes on and on and on. And regulations are not just hurting banks but the customers who depend on them. And for the customer, relationships matter. My constituents want to bank with people they can trust, and that is not the Federal Government. And they want a banker to have relationships that are built not in a week or a month or a year but over a lifetime. And I tell everybody in the Federal Government, being a small-business owner, reputation is the most important thing all of us have at the end of day, something that this Administration just doesn't get. Now in Texas, we are not immune to the impact of Dodd- Frank. The other day, as we have talked about, in Texas alone-- and, Mr. Williams, you will probably back me up on this--we have 115 fewer community banks than we did 4 years ago. And that is an economy that is the best in the world. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Williams of Texas. And so we had Secretary Lew here yesterday, and we were talking about Dodd-Frank, and he was expounding on how great it was and said that we--we had also talked about how there is a possibility that he can just, with the stroke of a pen, take the $50 billion guys and get them out. Even Barney Frank agrees with that. But he thinks he has to continue to get Dodd-Frank in full implementation before he would do that. And I told him that I would like for him not to do that, because if we go that long, we could lose banks, we could lose all lending institutions, we could lose businesses, and we could lose jobs. So I hope he considers that. And then there is the worry and the fervor and the fear over fair lending evaluations and the use of disparate impact as a viable theory to evaluate all this. It is reportedly limiting the number of banks willing to make small-dollar loans; we understand that. And as someone who is in the automobile business, I am very sensitive to the idea that some think that people are given different rates based on race, religion, or gender. So I support reform in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's mortgage rules, but I also want to make it easier on you to be recognized for your performance and not penalized. I guess I would ask a question, really ``yes'' or ``no'' to all of you. I want to get back to what Secretary Lew said. Should we wait for full implementation of Dodd-Frank, or should we try reform it and get you guys out of it? Mr. Fenderson. We should reform it. Mr. Miller. If it is broke, fix it. Reform it. Mr. Williams. We definitely need to reform it. Ms. LaMascus. We weren't the bad actors. Reform it. Get us out of it. Mr. Williams. And it would also help mitigate the costs on consumers that we have to pass along. Mr. Williams of Texas. Right. Mr. Levitin. I think it really depends on the provision. Mr. Williams of Texas. Okay. Thank you. Now, we have talked, too, about--one of the questions I had was how much this is affecting your bottom line. We have talked a lot about that. I heard a thing the other day that says it takes more man- hours to meet Dodd-Frank now, halfway through it, than it did to build the Panama Canal. So that puts it in perspective. We also just heard from the professor that it is hard to measure compliance costs in a business. I would think that--is that right, Mr. Miller? Mr. Miller. That is correct, sir. Mr. Williams of Texas. But you also might--one way to measure this is it is cutting into your bottom line-- Mr. Miller. Yes, it does. Mr. Williams of Texas. --because you are having to hire someone who can't loan money out. Mr. Miller. It does cut into the bottom line tremendously. Mr. Williams of Texas. I will be brief. The economy is not fixed. I think that Main Street America is still hurting. Risk and reward is being attacked. And I guess I would ask any one of you just to respond quickly: If we reduce burdensome regulations on you all, don't you think it would help small-business guys like me to take risks, get rewards, put people to work, get them off unemployment, and get net worth back in America? Mr. Fenderson. Yes. Mr. Williams. And it would decrease your cost of doing business. Mr. Miller. Yes. Ms. LaMascus. Yes. Mr. Williams of Texas. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Chairman Hensarling. The gentleman yields back. The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Utah, Mrs. Love. Mrs. Love. Thank you. I appreciate you all being here today. I have sat here, and I have listened to testimony and listened to questions and expertise from scholars and expertise from professionals in the area. I have just a couple of yes-or- no questions, and then I want to just get into what I believe is the primary purpose of us being here. First of all, Mr. Levitin, yes or no, do you consider yourself a professional or an expert in this area? Mr. Levitin. I do. Mrs. Love. Okay. Do you proclaim that you know more, yes or no, than the consumers and the members of these banks and the four people who are sitting next to you? Mr. Levitin. About what? Mrs. Love. Do you know more about the banking industry than the people sitting next to you? Mr. Levitin. About certain aspects of it, yes. Mrs. Love. Okay. It is really interesting to me, as I have sat here and I think about my experiences in the past, short 2\1/2\ months, is this is the biggest problem that we have. We continue to say to the American people: Let Washington fix all of our problems. Let the professional, the scholarly elites make the decisions for us. Let us go in and try and protect the American people from themselves. And I think it is high time that we as Americans start trusting the American people again to make decisions in their homes, in their communities, and with the community banks that actually know them by name. I have realized, in everything that we have looked at, in all of our history, when Washington gets too involved in anything, the same thing always happens: Prices go up and quality goes down, every single time. And I want to just be very clear here that I am not anti- government. I am pro-limited-government. I am pro the American people having more decision-making in what they are doing and learning and being able to--I think that the American people are smart enough to make decisions. So I just wanted to just ask a few questions concerning what this hearing is about today. I have been hearing a lot about small banks and how much more vulnerable to costs and burdens of regulations they are because of the lack of balance sheets and resources of the larger banks in which to absorb the cost of compliance. Would you say--and this question is for Mr. Fenderson--that smaller banks are suffering terribly and disproportionately, in your opinion, under the burden of Dodd-Frank and Basel III? Mr. Fenderson. I think there is a combination of regulation as a whole that require small banks to react and respond, and, therefore, it is a burden on us financially. Mrs. Love. Okay. As a result, and certainly not surprisingly, community banks are failing and certainly merging and being bought out by larger banks at near record rates. And, certainly, the rate of new banks being launched has fallen to an all-time low level in 8 decades. Would you say that would be as a result of some of the regulations that we are seeing today, Mr. Williams? Mr. Williams. Yes. Mrs. Love. Do we--go ahead? Mr. Williams. And I would also like to follow up. The Basel capital rules are coming in over time, they are being phased in. And we shouldn't be subjected to those capital rules, clearly, because we don't have the risk that are designed for the international banks that they are written for. Mrs. Love. Okay. So, Mr. Miller, you talked about the cost of compliance being pushed down to the consumer. Would you say that you would have hard evidence of that actually happening, that you can see the cost of compliance, of trying to conform to these regulations, actually being passed down to the consumers who come in and are trying to receive a specialized, more personal relationship and loan from your institution? Mr. Miller. Absolutely, and we have hard evidence. We can submit some follow-up comments for the record on that from some of my peer credit unions. I also want to make another comment, if I may. There was an inference that there is a conflict of interest with four of the people at this table earlier today because we represent the banks and credit unions for which we work. I work for my 22,650 members. They are member-owners. They elect a board of directors. It is all volunteer. They hire me, and I hire my staff to run the credit union on their behalf. I don't think that is a conflict of interest, respectfully. Mrs. Love. I would also say that I work for the American people, and I work for my district. And that is exactly what I am doing here, making sure that I have their back in terms of letting them keep a little more of their money so that they can take care of their needs. I also want to say that when we are looking at some of these things, what I tend to see is that Dodd-Frank is actually making it so that these banks are being pushed to be either absorbed or being pushed into bigger banks, which is what we are trying to protect the American people from. Anyway-- Chairman Hensarling. The time of the gentlelady has expired. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Hill. Mr. Hill. Thank you, Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters, for this good panel. I appreciate all of you being here and suffering through a long morning with us. I spent 35 years in the banking business prior to being elected to Congress in November, starting in Texas and in Arkansas. And so I have lived under all these rules and all these organizations for 3 decades and enjoyed every minute of it. It was a dream come true and prepared me for running for Congress. Professor, you made a comment earlier that sort of left the impression, I think, that FDIC insurance is optional in some way. And since FIRREA or FDICIA, I don't remember which, it is certainly not. It is contingent on getting a charter to be a bank in the country. Mr. Levitin. For getting a national bank charter, it is. For getting a State bank charter, it is not. Mr. Hill. I don't believe that is true. We are not going to debate it today. I would just invite you to go check that out. I also reject the premise that banks sell bad loans on the secondary market and keep good loans for their own portfolio, which seems sort of implicit, kind of hanging in the room. I have certainly never seen that in my 3 decades of experience. I also reject the fact that somehow consumer protection was lax in the financial services industry prior to the dawn of a new world with the CFPB. We have had State attorneys general, we have had insurance departments, securities departments, State banking departments, we have had the FDIC and the OCC, I think, do a splendid job of enforcing consumer regulation in the commercial banking and credit union industries for years and years. Finally, I would like to suggest that the burden of regulation is cumulative. And we never talk about that, we never reflect on that. And it is like that last straw that breaks the camel's back. For me, something I would like to point out is just the breadth of paperwork in 4 or 5 years. I am so glad our bank went to our loan committee on iPads so that we didn't have to cut down more trees. But I got a note the other day from a bank in Searcy, Arkansas, in my district, for a $174,000 home loan. And prior to the ability-to-repay rules that are now in place, the package was this thick. And that comports with my memory of it, from just leaving banking a few weeks ago. This is the size of the packet today, 255 pages, not including the appraisal, not including the tax returns, to go through a loan approval process--255 pages versus 20 pages. So I think that speaks to what everyone is feeling. And all that cost is sent to the consumer, and I hope everyone understands that. The last topic I want to get your views on is this issue of disparate treatment that Mr. Williams raised. Because we all want our consumers to get an absolute fair deal and a great deal from our financial institutions, be they banks or credit unions, and we want that regardless of a bank's size, right? So the fair lending laws are good, and HMDA allows us to check to make sure we are doing a good job. But reflect on this one-size-fits-all, no price variability, no matter what your geography you are covering, in disparate treatment. Let's start with you, Mr. Fenderson. Mr. Fenderson. I would say that as we evaluate consumer loans, we try to evaluate them on an individual basis. And, in many cases, we are dealing with someone that we have dealt with before. But when we are dealing with a new borrower, we simply evaluate their ability to repay and all the things that we normally have to check and balance for. We don't think that, as an institution, there is any disparate treatment to pricing a loan based on its risk, because your debt-to-income ratio may be higher than another borrower. So we would like to retain that ability do that. Mr. Hill. Mr. Miller? Mr. Miller. I would concur with Mr. Fenderson that we need flexibility to make appropriate business decisions. And if you look at how credit unions have done in controlling risk, we have done a phenomenal job. And this one-size-fits-all approach once again forces us to major in the minors. We are forcing minor players in the industry to comply with rules that the major offenders have committed. And that is not fair for the consumer, it is not fair for the American people, it is not fair for the economy and jobs. And, once again, it is going to create this implosion of jobs in the financial services industry that also has a cascading effect and causes loss of jobs in other industries. And tax revenues will suffer as a result of that, too. Mr. Williams. Congressman, disparate treatment, we are very concerned about this expanded HMDA reporting. We think that is designed to be the new enforcement mechanism and the backbone for the Federal regulators to enforce disparate lending on banks. We have had a lot of experience with fair lending in the past, and it is a very difficult issue when dealing with disparate lending, disparate impact. Mr. Hill. Thank you. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Hensarling. The gentleman yields back. There are no other Members in the queue, so I would like to thank each and every one of our witnesses for their testimony and their patience today. The Chair notes that some Members may have additional questions for this panel, which they may wish to submit in writing. Without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 5 legislative days for Members to submit written questions to these witnesses and to place their responses in the record. Also, without objection, Members will have 5 legislative days to submit extraneous materials to the Chair for inclusion in the record. This hearing stands adjourned. [Whereupon, at 1:04 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.] A P P E N D I X March 18, 2015 [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] [all]