Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010--Continued
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the amendment that Senator Murray and I have been working on together that would expand the Financial Stability Oversight Council established in S. 3217 to include as nonvoting members a State insurance commissioner, a State banking supervisor, and a State securities commissioner. Concomitantly, I seek to remove the independent voting member position having insurance expertise, as that would create a duplicative position.
It is critically important that the Council incorporate State regulators. State banking, insurance, and securities regulators are on the front lines of financial regulation and therefore have information and perspectives that are necessary components of an effective regulatory structure. State regulators could act as ``first responders'' to the Council, in that they see trends developing at the State level. They could serve as an early warning system, identifying practices and risk-related trends that are substantial contributing factors to systemic risk.
I ask for unanimous consent that the joint letter from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and the North American Securities Administrators Association supporting this amendment be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record,
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I also wish to speak briefly on my amendment, No. 3879, which would help raise capital and risk standards for banks, bank holding companies, and nonbank financial institutions.
It is not my intent that this amendment affect the treatment of small
bank holding companies as provided under the Federal Reserve's Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement, nor do I intend that the amendment apply to Federal Home Loan Banks. Likewise, I would like the record to reflect that the effective date for bank holding companies owned by foreign banking organizations that obtained an exemption from capital requirements pursuant to the Federal Reserve's Supervision and Regulation Letter SR-01-1 should be 5 years after enactment.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that this intent is properly reflected in the final language of this reform bill.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source