August 26, 2009

While health care reform is grabbing the headlines, there is a debate about potentially harmful regulation of community banks that's receiving less attention, but is critical to the financial health of our country, states, communities and citizens. At the heart of the debate is the role of the states, whose officials have promoted a diverse local system with a priority on local economic development and consumer protection.

Federal government regulators have gotten close to very large banks under a global centralized system. These models are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but, in the past year, through big bank bailouts and with proposed federal legislation, the scale is tipping heavily in one direction — and it's not toward your smaller local bank or you.Recently, the Senate Banking Committee proposed a reform plan to create a single federal regulator in response to the current financial crisis and economic downturn.