ABA’s Keating Says Regulations Throttling Small Banks

Excessive regulation is strangling U.S. community banks, which have closed at the rate of about one per business day since the 2008 financial crisis, said Frank Keating, head of the American Bankers Association.

Community banks spend about 15 percent of revenue on compliance even though they weren’t responsible for the credit crisis that spurred new regulations including higher capital requirements, said Keating, the Washington-based trade group’s chief executive officer. There were 6,234 community banks in the U.S. as of the first quarter with total assets of $2 trillion, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.