Headlines
FDIC Proposes Possible Extension of Transaction Account Guarantee Program
The FDIC Board yesterday issued a notice of proposed rulemaking asking for comment on two alternatives for phasing out the Transaction Account Guarantee Program, which provides an unlimited FDIC guarantee for deposits in qualifying noninterest-bearing transaction accounts. Under the first alternative, the TAGP -- a component of the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program -- would end, as scheduled, on Dec. 30, 2009. Read the proposal.
ABA: Consumer Agency Not a Solution to Economic Problems
The banking industry fully supports effective consumer protection, but the Obama administration’s proposal to create a new consumer regulatory agency for financial services is not the solution to current economic problems, ABA President and CEO Ed Yingling told the House Financial Services Committee yesterday. Read Yingling's oral testimony. Read ABA's written testimony.
Chairman Frank Introduces Bill to Allocate TARP Dividends for Housing Funds House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill that would allocate $1 billion in dividends paid to the Troubled Asset Relief Program to the National Housing Trust Fund, according to press reports. The NHTF, created in 2007 to ensure that public funding would be available for the construction, rehabilitation and preservation of affordable housing units, did not receive any money last year. The legislation also would direct $1.5 billion to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, intended to help state and local governments acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties, and $2 billion to a Department of Housing and Urban Development fund designed to aid homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments.
Agencies Update Loan-to-Deposit Ratios
The federal banking agencies yesterday issued updated host-state loan-to-deposit ratios that they will use to determine compliance with Section 109 of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act. Section 109 prohibits banks from establishing or acquiring branches outside their home states primarily for the purpose of deposit production. Congress enacted Section 109 to ensure that interstate branches would not take deposits from a community without helping to meet its credit needs. Read more.
