Warren is wrong: Dodd-Frank is
crushing traditional banking
In two Senate Banking Committee hearings this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) declared that community banks are thriving under the rules of Dodd-Frank and "doing great" under the mountain of new rules and regulation it has produced.
"Her comments are insensitive and offensive to America's traditional banks, who are still reeling from the monstrosity of Dodd-Frank," said John Boyer, CEO of KANZA Bank in Kingman, Kansas and Chairman of Friends of Traditional Banking (FOTB).
The fact is, according to a new study from Harvard (Warren's former employer) Dodd-Frank is crushing community banks. "Dodd-Frank's regulatory burdens are driving consolidation, and could result in lending markets less able to serve core economic demands," the study concludes. Since 2010 when Dodd-Frank passed, the rate of community banks losing market share to big banks has doubled from the four years prior.
Every business day in the United States, another community bank closes its doors. We are now down to 6,589 banks in this country, the same number as we had in 1891.
Yet, Warren is gleeful about the improving profitability among surviving community banks. "She misses the point entirely," said Boyer, pointing out that if the economy is growing, bank profits will always grow, especially if a record number of community banks are being assimilated.
"Friends of Traditional Banking will continue to oppose members of Congress who are harming this important industry, regardless of party affiliation and in primary elections if needs be," Boyer declared, "and we will always champion common sense alternatives to those who would destroy us."
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