Political Quotes

“today's thrift industry is an important provider of mortgage loans and consumer financial services. The thrift industry is required to focus its resources on providing consumer and community-oriented credit. For example, current law requiries a unitary thrift to devote at least 65 percent of its assets to mortgage, consumer, and small business loans. In addition, the commercial lending authority of federal thrifts is strictly limited to 20 percent of assets of which half must be to small businesses. This ``specialization'' works. The last time Money magazine published an article identifying ``the best bank in America'' for quality and low cost pricing of its services, the recognized institution was a thrift-- USAA Federal Savings Bank. Similarly, the last time Consumer Reports surveyed ``the best deals in 25 cities'' for checking accounts, 77 percent of the leading institutions were thrifts. This large percentage is noteworthy becasue less than 18 percent of the banking institutions existing at the time were thrifts. Thrifts are a minority of the competitor but offer a majority of the best deals. The unitary thrift structure allows the capital from commercial companies to support the community lending activities of the thrift charter. More than 166 applications from nonbanking firms have been filed with the federal thrift regulator to charter new thrift institutions since January 1997.”