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Federal Register Publications

FDIC Federal Register Citations



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FDIC Federal Register Citations


Voyager Financial Services Corporation

September 14, 2004

Robert E. Feldman
Attn: Comments / Legal ESS
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW.
Washington, DC 20429

RE: RIN number 3064-AC50

Dear Mr. Feldman:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed revisions to 12 CFR 345 implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The change in the definition of “small bank” to raise the asset size threshold to $1 billion is of particular interest to us. In total our holding company has over $500 million in assets, approximately $490 million is devoted to Voyager Bank. We have five offices between our bank and mortgage company. All but one is located in the metro areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A majority of the bank’s customer base is commercial, but we do have a fair amount of consumer clients.

We strongly support the FDIC’s proposal to increase the asset size of banks eligible for the small bank CRA examination to $1 billion. Banks’ regulatory burden has increased significantly over the past few years with the passage of such laws as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, HMDA 2004, the FACT Act and the Check 21 Act. While banks understand the need for banking regulations, community banks find complying with them especially burdensome. The data collection piece of “large bank” CRA makes up a significant chunk of this weight. Changing the asset threshold to $1 billion will decrease the regulatory burden for many community banks, leaving more time for bank employees to meet the credit needs of their community.

The mandatory community development criterion for banks with assets greater than $250 million, as an additional component of small bank standards is not unduly burdensome and would be acceptable to us. Although this is the first year in which we are considered a “large bank” for CRA purposes, our opinion is that the investment and services tests do not require a large amount of additional employee time. Our employees are already very involved in our communities, and this is reflected in our number of qualified services. In addition, we’ve created a relationship that allows us to make qualified investments with very little difficulty. We understand, however, that this is not the case for many of our community bank peers.

In conclusion, we firmly support raising the small bank threshold. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this important proposal.

Sincerely,

Brenda Sonnek, CRCM, CCBIA
Director of Internal Audit & Compliance, SVP
Voyager Financial Services Corporation
775 Prairie Center Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344

 

Last Updated 09/17/2004 regs@fdic.gov

Last Updated: August 4, 2024