These four issues have important implications for the chartering and regulation of thrift institutions, the safety and soundness of the SAIF, and the application of CRA to insured depository institutions. Expansion of unitary thrifts, without an adequate regulatory structure to ensure safety and soundness, echoes the origins of the savings and loan crisis, when thrift powers were expanded without appropriate supervision. We have posed these questions to OTS Director Seidman, and appreciate her thoughtful response. We particularly commend the OTS for acknowledging the need to review its supervision of unitary thrift holding companies, and the need for an internal review of its current procedures. State regulation and supervision is professional, cost effective and efficient.
State banks are well capitalized, profitable, and serving their customers.
Restriction of state powers, state bank structures, and state regulation weakens the system as a whole. Preserving the authority of each state to decide the bank structure, products and services that best suit their citizens' needs, strengthens the system. We believe that H.R. 10 is a good beginning to modernizing our federal banking system. It recognizes that the lines between traditional banking and other financial services are disappearing. It provides for a system of comprehensive oversight.