On the recordJune 8, 2011
I too echo the thoughts of the good Senator from Illinois. Senator Durbin and I are friends. We may not sound like it today, but we are. We just happen to disagree on this particular piece of policy. There is one premise that I think is being taken as a given that is not a given at all. It was in the original Durbin amendment. It said we were going to exempt banks of $10 billion and less and credit unions of $10 billion and less--so we are going to do that. A lot of folks voted for this amendment because they knew the small banks couldn't distribute their costs, and it would have undue harmful effects on the small banks, small credit unions, and community banks. But the facts have borne out something different since the last year. They have not been borne out by stuff that I have made up. It comes from the regulators themselves. I have said many times on this floor that every regulator I have talked to, State or Federal, has said the exemption for small banks and credit unions will not work. It will not work. We voted on something 1 year ago that we thought we had and it does not work. Let me read the quotes: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: We're still not sure whether it will work. There are market forces that would work against the exemption. He said it May 12 of this year. Another quote by Chairman Bernanke: It is going to affect the revenues of small issuers and could result in some of the smaller banks being less profitable or even failing.…
