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30 COMPTROLLER OUTLINES PROPOSALS TO REDUCE REGULATORY BURDEN FOR SMALL BANKS Speaking at the sixth interagency outreach meeting on e Economic Growth and Regula- tory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) of 1996, Comptroller of the Currency omas J. Curry outlined specific legislative proposals that have been introduced to reduce regulatory burden on smaller banks. e series of outreach meetings began last December 2 in Los Angeles, and the meetings have been hosted by the Federal Reserve System, the OCC, and the FDIC, to discuss their collec- tive effort to reduce regulatory burden placed on insured deposit institutions by the EGRPRA. e meetings are part of the EGRPRA review to allow interested parties to comment on regula- tory burden directly to the government agencies. At the sixth and latest outreach meeting, Curry discussed two specific legislative propos- als. First, the House voted in October to raise the asset threshold for small banks to $1 billion and is currently included in another funding measure that is likely to be signed by the President, Curry said. Raising the asset threshold to that level would qualify an additional 600 additional banks for the 18-monht examination cycle. "at would not only reduce the burden on those well-managed institutions, it would allow the federal banking agencies to focus our supervisory resources on those banks and thrifts that present capital, managerial, or other issues of significant supervisory concern," Curry said. Curry said the second proposal would provide federal savings associations with greater flex- ibility to expand their business model without changing their governance structure. "It's important that federal savings associa- tions, like other businesses, have the flexibility to adapt to changing economic and business envi- ronments to meet the needs of their communi- ties, and they shouldn't have to bear the expense of changing charters in order to do so," Curry said. "We have recommended authorizing a basic set of powers that both federal savings associa- tions and national banks can exercise, regardless of their charter, so that savings associations can change business strategies without moving to a different charter." is second proposal recently passed in the House Financial Services Committee, and Curry said he hopes it soon goes for a full House vote. While Curry said these legislative proposals are meaningful steps taken toward achieving relief from regulatory burden for community banks, he admitted there are other ways to make smaller institutions financially viable. "One especially promising approach involves collaboration, which was the subject of a paper we issued recently," he said. "By pooling resources, smaller institutions can trim costs and serve customers that might otherwise lie beyond their reach." PRESIDENT SIGNS FANNIE MAE & FREDDIE MAC CEOS' SALARY CAP BILL INTO LAW It appears that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs will not be receiving the multi- million dollar pay raises that Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mel Watt had in mind for them. A statement from the White House's press secretary revealed that President Obama signed S. 2036, the Equity in Government Compensa- tion Act of 2015 into law. e bill, which "suspends compensation packages approved for 2015 for the chief execu- tive officers of the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and any of their affiliates, and reinstates the compensation and benefits previ- ously in effect," the statement said. e U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 2036 by voice vote, placing a cap on the salaries of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs right at the original amount of $600,000 per year. S. 2036, also known as the Equity in Gov- ernment Compensation Act of 2015,was initially scheduled to be voted on by the House in late October, but was postponed due to a hefty lineup of other legislation, including voting on a new Speaker of the House. e bill, co- sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachu- setts), passed unanimously in the Senate in September. "While this is a victory for taxpayers, the real battle of winding down the GSEs and ending the government's domination of the housing market remains," Royce said on Monday after the Vitter-Warren bill passed. "My ultimate goal is still comprehensive housing finance reform that brings private capital into the system to eliminate the boom-and-bust cycle that wreaked havoc on the American economy. is task takes on all the more urgency as Fannie and Fred- die slip into the red and invite new taxpayer bailouts." e White House also has also previously expressed its support for pay limits on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs' salaries. "I think it is entirely legitimate for the executives at those institutions to be subject to compensation limits," stated White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

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