Congressman Barney Frank Addresses Bank Consortium

to Discuss Need for Balanced Regulations

            WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Congressman Barney Frank met with the Consortium on Bank Regulation to review his agenda as the incoming Chair of the House Financial Services Committee to a gathering of bankers. "The enemy of good regulation is bad regulation and excessive regulation," said the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee to the attendee’s. Congressman Frank added, "Congress’s goal is to provide the private sector with the goals but not mandate how to meet the goals." With the right goals set, banking professionals will need to develop ways to meet the requirements while also maintaining their competitiveness in the financial markets.

            The meeting focused on developing industry-wide capabilities to ease the exploding costs of complying with regulations. "Several banks were written up in the American Banker today suspected of biased lending practices. The data was inconclusive to prove bias, however the lack of solid evidence did not keep the banks out of the headlines," stated Wayne Abernathy of the American Bankers Association. “The asymmetry of information means that banks must rely on regulators to tell them the value of reporting,” stated Mr. Abernathy. William Phelan, President of PayNet, Inc. and the meeting sponsor said, “our goal is to create an industry-wide information source. This will enable banks to create new products, lower costs and broaden access to financial services which is in the best interest of all parties."

#  #  #

Founded in 1999, PayNet, Inc. is the industry’s largest repository of historical lease and loan payment information on the U.S. small-business community.  PayNet’s information is utilized on behalf of participating institutions to increase revenues, control risk and lower operating costs.  Its data covers more than $400 billion in loans on privately-held small businesses.