Lloyd Bentsen: “I thank the gentleman. My only concern with this, and I think all of us are concerned with this legislation in terms of…”

“I thank the gentleman. My only concern with this, and I think all of us are concerned with this legislation in terms of consumer protection and disclosure and appearances of whether or not there is some sort of taxpayer-backed guarantee to other financial activities that banks or thrifts are getting into. The problem I have with this particular amendment is that we are going to take the moniker of Federal and allow it to be used for nonfederally chartered institutions. I am not an expert on banking law, but I would imagine this is highly unprecedented. I appreciate what the gentleman is trying to do. I am a strong supporter of the dual banking system, as the gentleman knows from our work together on the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, but I think this raises a lot of questions with respect to proper disclosure. And I think that you have the problem that a depositor comes into a bank and they think it is a federally chartered bank, maybe they think it is still regulated by the Comptroller of the Currency, but it has shifted to a State-chartered bank. They may feel that they have more protections because the name Federal is in there than what they might have under a State charter. I appreciate what the gentleman is doing, but I have to oppose the amendment. Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.”