On the recordMay 22, 2019
Today I rise to discuss an issue that is probably on the radar for almost everybody in this country that is watching or listening, but it involves new accounting standards being proposed called CECL. This is supposed to put some transparency into the balance sheet for people investing in banks, but it has a far-reaching impact in credit unions, debt collection, and all sorts of other funds, including the GSEs and credit cards; yet this accounting standard is being promoted by the Federal Accounting Standards Board without any study to show whether it is going to have an impact or not on our economy and on our consumers. The Home Builders Association says, for every $1,000 incoming into the cost of a home loan, 100,000 people across this country will no longer have access to home loans. What a dramatic impact on low- to moderate-income folks as well as our economy as a whole, as well as to financial institutions as a whole. The result of this, in other words, whenever this thing is implemented, when we have a downturn in the economy and all of a sudden you have to reserve additional money because of that, it will exacerbate, in my opinion, the downturn. This is a horrible deal. We need to take another look at it. We need to stop it and study it. ____________________
