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PIONEER BANK & TRUST
From: Clay Birkeland [mailto:ClayB@pioneerbankandtrust.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 4:52 PM
To: Comments
Cc: psmith@aba.com
Subject: CRA
reference RIN No. 3064-AC50
September 15, 2004
Mr. Robert E. Feldman
Executive Secretary
Attention: Comments/Legal ESS
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429
Re: RIN Number 3064-AC50: FDIC Proposed Increase in the Threshold for
the
Small Bank CRA Streamlined Examination
Dear Sir or Madam:
I am Vice President of Pioneer Bank & Trust, located in Belle Fourche,
SD, a small community of 5,000 people. My bank has $286,000,000 in
assets and is subject to large bank CRA exam requirements. I am writing
to strongly support the FDIC’s proposal to raise the threshold for the
streamlined small bank CRA examination to $1 billion without regard to
the size of the bank’s holding company. This would greatly relieve the
regulatory burden imposed on many small banks such as my own under the
current regulation, which are required to meet the standards imposed on
the nation’s largest $1 trillion banks. I understand that this is not an
exemption from CRA and that my bank would still have to help meet the
credit needs of its entire community and be evaluated by my regulator.
However, I believe that this would lower my current regulatory burden by
at least 3000 man-hours.
I also support the addition of a community development criterion to
the small bank examination for larger community banks. It appears to be
a significant improvement over the investment test. However, I urge the
FDIC to adopt its original $500 million threshold for small banks
without a CD criterion and only apply the new CD criterion to community
banks greater than $500 million up to $1 billion. Banks under $500
million now hold about the same percent of overall industry assets as
community banks under $250 million did a decade ago when the revised CRA
regulations were adopted, so this adjustment in the CRA threshold is
appropriate. As FDIC examiners know, it has proven extremely difficult
for small banks, especially those in rural areas, to find appropriate
CRA qualified investments in their communities. Many small banks have
had to make regional or statewide investments that are extremely
unlikely to ever benefit the banks’ own communities. That was certainly
not intent of Congress when it enacted CRA.
An additional reason to support the FDIC’s CD criterion is that it
significantly reduces the current regulation’s “cliff effect.” Today,
when a small bank goes over $250 million, it must completely reorganize
its CRA program and begin a massive new reporting, monitoring and
investment program.
If the FDIC adopts its proposal, a state nonmember bank would move
from the small bank examination to an expanded by still streamlined
small bank examination, with the flexibility to mix Community
Development loans, services and investments to meet the new CD
criterion. This would be far more appropriate to the size of the bank,
and far better than subjecting the community bank to the same large bank
examination that applies to $1 trillion banks. This more graduated
transition to the large bank examination is a significant improvement
over the current regulation.
I strongly oppose making the CD criterion a separate test from the
bank’s overall CRA evaluation. For a community bank, CD lending is not
significantly different from the provision of credit to the entire
community. The current small bank test considers the institution’s
overall lending in its community. The addition of a category of CD
lending (and services to aid lending and investments as a substitute for
lending) fits well within the concept of serving the whole community. A
separate test would create an additional CD obligation and regulatory
burden that would erode the benefit of the streamlined exam.
I strongly support the FDIC’s proposal to change the definition of
“community development” from only focusing on low-and moderate-income
area residents to including rural residents. I think that this change in
the definition will go a long way toward eliminating the current
distortions in the regulation. We caution the FDIC to provide a
definition of “rural” that will not be subject to misuse to favor just
affluent residents of rural areas. We strive to serve multi-generational
operations supporting several families on a very limited income.
In conclusion, I believe that the FDIC has proposed a major
improvement in the CRA regulation, one that much more closely aligns the
regulations with Community Reinvestment Act itself, and I urge the FDIC
to adopt its proposal, with the recommendations above. I will be happy
to discuss these issues further with you, if that would be helpful.
Sincerely,
Clay Birkeland, Vice President
Pioneer Bank & Trust
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