Dept. of Banking Proposed Regulation
To: All Members, MBA of PA and PAMB
From: E. Robert Levy, Legislative/Regulatory Council
Date: July 9, 2007
DEPARTMENT OF BANKING ISSUES PROPOSED REGULATION TO BE THE SUBJECT OF COMMENT BY THE MBA OF PA AND PAMB
The Department of Banking has issued its proposed regulation, which is attached for our members’ consideration. This regulation was initially the subject of an informal hearing in September of 2006 at which I testified on behalf of the MBA of PA and the PAMB (along with others). Some of our concerns have been addressed in the current version which has now been issued. However, the present form of the regulation is still of concern and new provisions have been added that we feel are not appropriate, are overbroad and may not be within the regulatory authority of the Department.
We had informally discussed our concerns with the present form of regulation with representatives of the Department who attended our recent Joint Council (MBA of PA and PAMB representatives) meeting. Unfortunately, the regulation could not be altered at that time. The proposal will now go through a formal process which will involve the Attorney General’s office, the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), Committees in the House and Senate and, of course, the Department.
We will have a 30 day period (which did not start yet) to file comments on the regulation and the Department will have to make a final decision after all of the input it receives is in. In this regard, we have been informed that the regulation will be published in the July 21, 2007 edition of the PA Bulletin. Therefore, public comments will close on Monday, August 20, 2007. The IRRC, which has to review regulations of this kind to determine, among other things, whether it is within the statutory authority of the agency issuing it will have to provide its comments to the Department by Wednesday, September 19, 2007. We will, of course, also have the opportunity to inform the IRRC of our position on the regulation.
Members of the MBA of PA and PAMB should review the regulation carefully and provide written comments to each Association as soon as possible. The Boards of both organizations will be reviewing them as well and the Joint Council will provide the final comments to IRRC, the Department and others in order to seek appropriate changes in the regulation where deemed necessary.
|
