OK State Banking Board Votes to Lower Assessment Rates for 2012

After receiving this press release last night from the Office of Governor Fallin (R-OK), decided to check out the financial instutions the Oklahoma State Banking Department controls versus the national banks and credit unions:

The Oklahoma State Banking Department regulates state-chartered banks, credit unions, savings and loans, trust companies, money transmitter companies and money order companies. 

The Comptroller of the Currency (800-643-6743) regulates national banks and the National Credit Union Administration (800-755-1030) regulates national credit unions.

How much money is it costing banks with new government regulations put in place by the Obama Administration and the Congress?

The state Banking Board’s move will free up Oklahoma’s community banks to devote more capital to community-based lending to help promote economic development and job growth in the private sector,” Fallin said.

Decided to explore the new government regulations and discovered that MSN Money has a detailed article:

Recent financial regulations are expected to cost banks as much as $25 billion a year, as they will now be forced to set limits on credit interchange fees charged to merchants, ask permission from consumers to charge overdraft fees and generally be more straightforward with their customers about interest rates. 

"Regulatory and legislative activities have been working primarily against banks," said Richard Davis, the CEO of U.S. Bank, in a recent interview. "A lot of those are negatively biased against banks as they relate to profitability."

In response, major banks are expected to make up for lost revenue by coming up with new fees to charge consumers. In fact, some of the biggest banks have already begun to do so. Yet from a consumer's perspective, there is something amiss with this strategy. Many of these banks justify the new fees by playing up their weakened balance sheets, only to dole out lavish bonuses and exorbitant salaries to their executives. But if a company can afford to pay its executives extremely well, isn't that a sign that its finances are in better shape than it lets on?

JPMorgan and other banks have said they raised certain fees to make up for revenue lost because of new and proposed regulations related to debit and credit cards. CardHub.com estimates that proposed limits to debit-card transaction fees could cost banks $13 billion a year. Based on these regulatory and industry shifts, Wells Fargo said it considers its accounts and services fairly priced.

MainStreet took a closer look at some of the biggest banks that are imposing new fees this year and found that some have also increased the salaries for their chief executives, casting further doubts on their motives. How much more are they making -- and how much more are you paying? Find out on the following pages.

Even though banks are facing new government regulations that are going to cost them billions, the big banks are still giving out huge bonuses to their CEO's and other high ranking banking officials.  Since the cost is passed onto the consumer, it is time to cut out all bonuses until further notice.  The government should not be in the business of regulating bonuses but the consumers sure can.  No one individual deserves millions of dollars in bonus money.  The banking industry is crying about how bad they have it right now with the new regulations and how much it is costing their banks but they are finding millions to reward their top tier people?  

If your bank is giving out huge bonuses, you might want to look elsewhere for a bank that doesn't give their CEO and others millions of dollars of your money every year as a bonus.  Without the money from customers, the banks make no money.  In the end consumers are paying for the rich to get richer so why not take your money to banks where the bank board treats your money like their money and refuse to pay huge bonuses at the end of the year.  

This is one reason locally owned banks and credit unions are becoming popular because consumers know their money is secure plus it is not being wasted on paying CEO's big salaries and bonuses.  No wonder interest rates are so low on savings as you have to pay out the year end bonuses.  Absolutely disgusting.  BTW, I bank locally and with a credit union.  Interest on checking is higher then most major banks have on savings by a few percentage points. 

Now we have the Oklahoman Banking Board lowering assessments on state charted institutions to make up for the federal regulation cost to banks they are facing in 2012.  What is in the Dodds/Franks bill that is costing banks so much money?  Was this another bill that had to be passed in order to see what was in the bill?  Government is out of control in DC starting with the Administration and the Congress.  Time to get some brooms and sweep out the deadwood who are coming up with all these regulations.  Don't they have something better to do then get involved in every aspect of our lives?  How about cutting back on regulations not giving us new ones for starters?

This Press Release from The Oklahoma Governor shows that Oklahoma is taking action to lower assessment rates for 2012 with our state chartered financial institutions to make sure that our economy continues to grow.  Maybe the people in DC should look at TX and OK to see what they are doing right and what the Federal Government is doing wrong.  Over regulation is killing this economy and that fault lies with the Administration and with members of Congress who go along to get along.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 14, 2011

State Banking Board Votes to Lower Assessment Rates for 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY – Governor Mary Fallin today announced the Oklahoma State Banking Board has voted to lower the assessment rates paid by all state-chartered banks in Oklahoma. The Board took action at its Nov. 30 meeting in response to the increased costs that Oklahoma banks are incurring as a result of federal regulatory changes.

The assessment rates were lowered 22 percent for a bank’s first $100 million of assets. The rates take effect Dec. 31, 2011. The Board reasoned this reduction in state regulatory assessments may help offset federal regulatory costs that are increasing, as well as help community banks devote more capital to community-based lending.

“What Washington doesn’t seem to understand is that burdensome regulation can stifle economic growth and job creation. The state Banking Board’s move will free up Oklahoma’s community banks to devote more capital to community-based lending to help promote economic development and job growth in the private sector,” Fallin said.

State Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson said, “The Board made this decision to lower assessments to send a message that the State Banking Department understands the federal regulatory burden that community banks are suffering through, and that strong community banks in Oklahoma are important to maintaining the state’s economic recovery.”

###

The Inhofe Informant

Below you will find the Inhofe Informant email. If you have not read the Inhofe Annual Report for 2009, take a few minutes and look at this report as Sen Inhofe details his actions fighting for all of us in 2009 against the liberal agenda.


May 5, 2010

Dear Friends,

This week, the U.S. Senate continues the debate that was started last week over Financial Regulatory Reform. Having repeatedly received the “Spirit of Enterprise Award” from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, I am committed to policies that promote economic development and protect Main Street from the kinds of abuses that led to our most recent economic recession. The Dodd bill being currently considered by the Senate is, in its current form, not that type of reform.

I have a proven record for opposing the previous bailouts under both Bush and Obama’s administrations and believe the only way for our economy to improve is to stop voting for further bailouts. My disagreement with additional taxpayer funded bailouts is partially why I opposed brining U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) financial regulatory reform bill to the Senate floor. In its original form, S. 3217, Restoring American Financial Stability Act, included an $50 billion bailout fund that I believe would pave the way for additional taxpayer funded bailouts.

This was one of six provisions in the legislation that allowed for continued bailouts. After Senate Democrats failed attempts to bring this piece of legislation up for debate, they made some concessions on the bailout provisions of the bill. However, even with these changes there are still major problems with this bill. Under the bill, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) would be created inside the Federal Reserve that would have sweeping authority to regulate not only financial companies but nearly any company that offers its customer any type of credit product, including auto-dealers, retailers, and manufacturers. Main Street businesses like the local orthodontist who allows patients to pay for braces under a payment plan would be subjected to these onerous new federal regulations. Your local car dealer would also be subjected to these new regulations as well. These businesses had nothing to do with the financial crisis.

This past weekend brought a near tragedy as an attempted terrorist attack using a car bomb in New York City’s Times Square was narrowly averted thanks to vigilant citizens and first responders. This recent attempt reminds us that there is an enemy desperately seeking to cause us harm. It is my top priority to keep Americans safe, and I am determined to work tirelessly to ensure officials have the tools they need to prevent terror attacks from occurring. This is why it is important to keep terrorist detainees at GITMO and have them tried through the military courts as enemy combatants.

Last week, I invited one of Oklahoma’s finest educators, Debbie Straughn , to testify before the Environment and Public Works Committee regarding the success of an outdoor classroom she created at her previous school, Deer Creek Elementary. With the outdoor classroom, each grade was involved in creating an outdoor habitat which included the fourth grade planting a flower garden in the shape of Oklahoma and the fifth grade building both a bird blind and a frog pond. As a result, both Straughn and Deer Creek Elementary received the U.S. Department of Interior Pride in America Award. During the hearing, many of my Senate colleagues praised Straughn’s newest approach to education. One legislator in particular, U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), expressed hope that the outdoor classroom would gain popularity in Maryland and in classrooms nationwide. After the hearing, Straughn and I used Skype to connect with elementary school students who watched the hearing. This experience was interactive and rewarding as we were both able to speak and answer questions from the students.

Inhofe-Straughn use Skype to talk with 2nd graders back at Grove Valley today following the hearing.

I testified before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee regarding S. 1241, a bill I proposed that would allow media filming on public lands. I find this piece of legislation to be very valuable as our media industry can potentially bring more awareness to our nation's resources through documentaries and sporting programs. Currently, S. 1241 gas a U.S. House companion H.R. 2031 sponsored by Rep. Dan Boren (OK-2).

Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency's "Lead: Renovation, Repair, and Painting" (Lead RRP) went into effect on April 22, 2010. This rule is made to help reduce lead exposure to pregnant women and children from dust caused by renovations. Please click here to read more about the changes occurring from the new lead rule.

Sincerely,

Jim Inhofe

Subprime Lending Crises including Barack Obama's Involvement in the 90's (Part 2 - MERS, Kansas Supreme Court Ruling)

WAKING UP TO DISCOVER THE MORTGAGE MARKET WAS A GIANT CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE!
Matt Taibbi; Global Research.ca
9-22-09 Mike Taibbi

A landmark ruling in a recent Kansas Supreme Court case may have given millions of distressed homeowners the legal wedge they need to avoid foreclosure. In Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, 2009 Kan. LEXIS 834, the Kansas Supreme Court held that a nominee company called MERS has no right or standing to bring an action for foreclosure. MERS is an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a private company that registers mortgages electronically and tracks changes in ownership. The significance of the holding is that if MERS has no standing to foreclose, then nobody has standing to foreclose – on 60 million mortgages. That is the number of American mortgages currently reported to be held by MERS.

Over half of all new U.S. residential mortgage loans are registered with MERS and recorded in its name. Holdings of the Kansas Supreme Court are not binding on the rest of the country, but they are dicta of which other courts take note; and the reasoning behind the decision is sound.
via Landmark Decision: Massive Relief for Homeowners and Trouble for the Banks. [link below]

This is a potentially gigantic story. It seems that a court has ruled that about half of the mortgage market has been run as a criminal enterprise for years, which would invalidate any potential forelosure proceedings for about, oh, 60 million mortgages. The court ruled that the electronic transfer system used by the private company MERS — a clearing system for mortgages, similar to a depository, that is used for about half the mortgage market — is fundamentally unreliable, and any mortgage sold and/or transferred through MERS can’t be foreclosed upon, at least not in Kansas.

Coincidentally I’d been working on something related to this all day yesterday. All over the country, lawyers are contesting foreclosures because of similar chain-of-custody issues. I have some material about this coming out in my next Rolling Stone story, so I can’t get into this too much, but suffice to say the lenders and the banks were extremely sloppy about their paperwork (at best — there is a fraud angle as well) and jammed up the system with missing and/or mismarked mortgage notes. Since a sale isn’t legal unless there’s full transfer of the physical note, a lot of the sales of mortgage-backed securities were not entirely legal, since the actual notes were often not transferred.

Nothing like waking up in the morning and finding out a whole sector of the economy is completely screwed. Are these good times or what?

Although this particular case pertains to MERS, non-MERS mortgages were often even worse. Anyway I have more on this coming next week. Thanks again to Eric at MonkeyBusiness for the heads-up.

Must Read: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15324
*****
The Potential Impact of 60 Million Fatally Flawed Mortgages

The banks arranging these mortgage-backed securities have typically served as trustees for the investors. When the trustees could not present timely written proof of ownership entitling them to foreclose, they would in the past file “lost-note affidavits” with the court; and judges usually let these foreclosures proceed without objection.

But in October 2007, an intrepid federal judge in Cleveland put a halt to the practice. U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Boyko ruled that Deutsche Bank had not filed the proper paperwork to establish its right to foreclose on fourteen homes it was suing to repossess as trustee. Judges in many other states then came out with similar rulings.

Following the Boyko decision, in December 2007 attorney Sean Olender suggested in an article in The San Francisco Chronicle that the real reason for the bailout schemes being proposed by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was not to keep strapped borrowers in their homes so much as to stave off a spate of lawsuits against the banks. Olender wrote:

“The sole goal of the [bailout schemes] is to prevent owners of mortgage-backed securities, many of them foreigners, from suing U.S. banks and forcing them to buy back worthless mortgage securities at face value – right now almost 10 times their market worth. The ticking time bomb in the U.S. banking system is not resetting subprime mortgage rates. The real problem is the contractual ability of investors in mortgage bonds to require banks to buy back the loans at face value if there was fraud in the origination process.

“. . . The catastrophic consequences of bond investors forcing originators to buy back loans at face value are beyond the current media discussion. The loans at issue dwarf the capital available at the largest U.S. banks combined, and investor lawsuits would raise stunning liability sufficient to cause even the largest U.S. banks to fail, resulting in massive taxpayer-funded bailouts of Fannie and Freddie, and even FDIC . . . .

“What would be prudent and logical is for the banks that sold this toxic waste to buy it back and for a lot of people to go to prison. If they knew about the fraud, they should have to buy the bonds back.”

Needless to say, however, the banks did not buy back their toxic waste, and no bank officials went to jail. As Olender predicted, in the fall of 2008, massive taxpayer-funded bailouts of Fannie and Freddie were pushed through by Henry Paulson, whose former firm Goldman Sachs was an active player in creating CDOs when he was at its helm as CEO.

Paulson also hastily engineered the $85 billion bailout of insurer American International Group (AIG), a major counterparty to Goldmans’ massive holdings of CDOs. The insolvency of AIG was a huge crisis for Goldman, a principal beneficiary of the AIG bailout.

In a December 2007 New York Times article titled “The Long and Short of It at Goldman Sachs,” Ben Stein wrote:

“For decades now, . . . I have been receiving letters [warning] me about the dangers of a secret government running the world . . . . [T]he closest I have recently seen to such a world-running body would have to be a certain large investment bank, whose alums are routinely Treasury secretaries, high advisers to presidents, and occasionally a governor or United States senator.”
The pirates seem to have captured the ship, and until now there has been no one to stop them. But 60 million mortgages with fatal defects in title could give aggrieved homeowners and securities holders the crowbar they need to exert some serious leverage on Congress – serious enough perhaps even to pry the legislature loose from the powerful banking lobbies that now hold it in thrall.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15324

Here’s a link to the Court’s decision: http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/supct/2009/20090828/98489.htm .