Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) for his leadership on this topic. He has been very dedicated to finding a solution here. He's worked with both sides of the aisle to find a way to get to the transparency and accountability that we need to have in terms of the examination process with our community banks, and I know he has been a tireless advocate for the communities in his district. We actually went to Mr. Westmoreland's district, to Newnan, Georgia, and had a legislative hearing, and we learned about the bank closures and the financial examination procedures. Regulators were all there. Financial institutions were there. But I think the one thing that struck me more than anything in the course of the conversation was, when a bank fails--and a lot of times a community bank is the only community bank, local bank, local ownership, know the people down the street. When that bank fails, it really guts the community in a way that's hard to describe. The larger banks are there; branches are there. But, still, losing that community anchor in a community bank can be a devastating thing, not just for individuals and families but also for the shop owner, the car dealer, the individual farmer, the folks that rely on the relationship banking that you get so spectacularly through a community bank. You lose that and, unfortunately, never to come back again in a lot of cases.…”