Pub. 5 2010-2011

September/October 2010 21 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. Q Financial Reform — continued on page 22 sumer Financial Protection Bureau, the regulator required to be created under the new legislation that is slated to be up and running by this time next year. Unlike the Wall Street banks, at which the legislation was targeted, many community banks don’t have ex- tensive in-house compliance resources to review and comply with the dozens of regulations required to be created to implement the new law. Consequently, it will be important for bankers to coor- dinate with trade associations, vendors, and advisors to implement timely and cost-effective compliance solutions. Many will need to add staff or contract with vendors for services designed to comply with the new regulations. However, the regulatory burden may force some to cry uncle. As noted in a recent American Banker article, regulators like Julie Stackhouse, the senior vice president of supervision at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, have been telling small bankers they ought to consider mergers to gain the scale needed to keep pace with tech- nology and to handle the burden of regulatory compliance. Some experts have speculated that the legislation could force a reduction in the number of banks from approximately 7,800 banks today to fewer than 6,000 banks. The new regulator behind many of these new rules will be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau will be housed within and funded by the Federal Reserve, and the bureau’s director will be a Presidential appointee subject to Senate approval. The bureau will have rule-making powers that apply to all banks, but its enforcement powers generally apply only to large banks withmore than $10 billion in assets. New regulations issued by the bureau may be reviewed by the Fi- nancial Stability Oversight Council ABA Education Foundation get smart about credit Every Teen Needs Your Help in Understanding How to Use Credit Wisely and Well On October 21, 2010 join thousands of your fellow bankers in the ABA Education Foundation’s Get Smart About Credit program, teaching young adults the fundamentals of credit. For more information and to register, visit abaef.com today! Get Smart About Credit Wants You! and stayed or set aside by a two-thirds vote of its members. The council will be comprised of the heads of the Fed- eral Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration, Securities &Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Consumer Fi- nancial Protection Bureau, Federal Housing Finance Agency, as well as the Treasury Secretary and a Presiden- tial appointee with insurance industry expertise. The Consumer Financial Protec- tion Bureau is empowered to issue new rules, orders, and guidance and to review and repeal existing rules and regulations for the “federal con- sumer financial laws.” The term “fed- eral consumer financial laws” includes the Dodd-Frank Act, all regulations