I tend to agree that the FDIC generally should review a notice filed under the Change in Bank Control Act (“CBCA”) when an investor other than a Federal Reserve-supervised holding company acquires indirect control of an FDIC-supervised bank through an acquisition of voting securities of the holding company of the bank. As the primary federal regulator, it is important that the FDIC have insight into the control chain of an FDIC-supervised bank.
On the other hand, it is also critically important that we not mandate duplicative regulatory notices or otherwise add undue regulatory burden.
Striking an appropriate balance would require coordination across the three federal bank regulators, including likely changes to each regulator’s CBCA implementing rules. We don’t have that interagency coordination here, so I am unable to support this proposal.
That said, should this proposal lead to an interagency consensus on how to more appropriately allocate responsibility for review of CBCA notices without adding undue regulatory burden, I would be eager to consider, and perhaps even inclined to support, any final rule that implements that consensus.