Joint statement by BPI, CRL and ICBA in advance of U.S. Subcommittee hearing on “The Future of Banking”
Washington D.C. — This morning, the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions will meet to discuss the “The Future of Banking,” including whether to prevent companies that are not banks from using an industrial loan company (ILC) charter to expand their business into financial services without meeting the full slate of safeguards and oversight that applies to bank holding companies. The Bank Policy Institute, Center for Responsible Lending and the Independent Community Bankers of America issued the following joint statement in advance of the hearing:
We applaud the Subcommittee’s scrutiny of the ILC loophole and urge the introduction and prompt passage of a legislative solution to address this problem. Lawmakers should eliminate shortcuts that enable multinational e-commerce conglomerates and tech behemoths to pick and choose their own rules and cut costs at the expense of consumers and the financial system. There should not be two separate rulebooks applied to businesses offering indistinguishable products; if your business operates as a bank, you must follow the same supervision and regulation requirements applied to traditional banks.
ILCs are FDIC-insured, state-chartered institutions that can offer near-identical banking products and services as traditional banks but are not held to the same regulatory standards as bank holding companies because they are not subject to the federal Bank Holding Company Act. For example, ILC parent companies are legally permitted to engage in unlimited non-banking activities, are not examined for data security or protection against cyber threats, are not required to meet consolidated capital requirements and are not required to maintain satisfactory Community Reinvestment Act ratings to continue certain activities, to list just a few of the unjustified exemptions. While ILCs were originally small, locally owned institutions when conceptualized, the institutions have dramatically expanded in both size and scope, presenting a laundry list of new regulatory challenges and risks.
Closing this loophole requires congressional action. We urge members of Congress to close the ILC loophole.
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Media Contacts
Bank Policy Institute
Austin Anton
(202) 834-3414
Center for Responsible Lending
Matthew Kravitz
matthew.kravitz@responsiblelending.org
(310) 405-5028
Independent Community Bankers of America
Aleis Stokes
