Banks regularly navigate through a maze of hundreds of rules and regulations mandated by governmental authorities. Sometimes they do a really good job, but other times they misfire. Neil Weinberg, editor in chief at American Banker, is sympathetic to banks regarding some of the rules they have to follow. From Linked In,
Perhaps the best example of how extreme, and self-serving, the government’s micro-management of banks can be involves Virginia Heritage Bank. The Treasury fined it $136,000 in the fall for failing to file a second set of paperwork attesting to whether its borrowers are sex offenders. The Treasury then used the proceeds from this and various other fines to pad by $4 million the “income” it declared under the Small Business Lending Fund.
There really are a myriad of rules that seem silly, but others highly necessary. It’s the price banks pay for providing a consumer service in which people should have some financial protection.
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