[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 12, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMUNITY BANKS OF NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTA ARE NOT THE SAME AS WALL 
                     STREET FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

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                         HON. JAMES L. OBERSTAR

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 12, 2009

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about the small 
town community banks in Northeastern Minnesota. The vast majority of 
these institutions are in strong financial condition. They are not AIG, 
and they are not staring at large sums of ``troubled assets''.
  The bankers living in my district don't need a bailout. They have 
money to lend to small businesses and families. They know their local 
communities because they live in them, their kids attend the local 
schools, and oftentimes, they personally know their customers from 
various interactions in the community. The financial strength of their 
communities directly affects them too, so they are actively working 
with customers who are experiencing problems repaying their loans--
people who lost their job though no fault of their own and small 
business owners hit particularly hard by this historic economic 
downturn.
  My constituents have seen rising foreclosure rates in their 
communities too, but it was not Northeastern Minnesota bankers who were 
responsible for many of these bad loans. Instead, it was often out-of-
state mortgage companies who had overly risky lending standards and who 
did not understand the local economies of Northeastern Minnesota, let 
alone the housing market in general.
  Irresponsible lending, over leveraging, and risky financial products 
by large financial institutions of Wall Street have had devastating 
economic consequences for families and small businesses located on Main 
Streets across Northeastern Minnesota. I look forward to working with 
Chairman Frank and my colleagues on addressing the regulatory 
shortfalls that allowed the current financial crisis to occur and on 
addressing the regulation of so-called ``to big to fail'' financial 
institutions. These actions will be important to restoring the public 
trust in our financial system and our long-term prosperity.
  I'm confident we won't have to work too hard on restoring public 
trust in the small town community banks of Northeastern Minnesota 
though, because the public trust in these institutions already exists. 
They have maintained public trust by doing what banks do--accepting 
deposits and making loans based on responsible leveraging and 
responsible lending standards.

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