Nuns With Guns: The Strange Day-to-Day Struggles Between Bankers and Regulators
By KIRSTEN GRIND and EMILY GLAZER
SAN DIEGO—Among the new federal banking regulations there is one that financial wonks call “TRID,” the TILA-Respa Integrated Disclosure rule. Attendees at a recent training school here for bank compliance staff, who must learn and enforce such rules, said they deciphered TRID’s true meaning: “The reason I drink.” The sobering reality of banking in 2016 is that lenders are awash in new regulations, and growing armies of rule-interpreters and enforcers—for good or ill—are bringing striking changes to banks’ internal cultures. The 2010 Dodd-Frank law, passed in the wake of the financial crisis and designed to prevent another, is one of the most complex pieces of legislation ever. At more than 22,200 pages of rules, it is equivalent to roughly 15 copies of “War and Peace” and covers matters from how much capital banks must set aside to how they can advertise…. The heightened regulatory environment led 46% of banks to pare back their offerings for loan accounts, deposit accounts or other services, according to an American Bankers Association survey of compliance officers last year. It is also costly. The six largest U.S. banks by assets in 2013 together spent at least $70.2 billion that year on regulatory compliance, up from $34.7 billion in 2007, according to the most recent study by policy-analysis firm Federal Financial Analytics Inc., which said costs have continued to mount since then.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nuns-with-guns-the-strange-day-to-day-struggles-between-bankers-and-regulators-1464627601?mod=e2tw
