Community Voices: Senate bill a smart approach to banking rules

Bakersfield.com
April 6, 2018

Last year, the membership of Chevron Valley Credit Union agreed to merge into Safe 1 Credit Union. Credit union mergers, such as this one, typically result in stronger lending products and better services for members. Credit unions — locally-owned financial cooperatives — have seen an uptick in mergers since the 2008 financial crisis. One of the main causes is a burdensome regulatory structure that is not intended for smaller, local financial institutions like credit unions or even community banks.

In a reaction to the financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank law. Although well-intended, the result of this law is an era of regulations that fails to decipher between Chase Bank, Bank of America and Safe 1 Credit Union. A $2 trillion Wall Street megabank has the similar compliance rules for those of us here serving Main Street. This makes no sense.

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