Writing yesterday in
National Review Online, Prof. Tanya Marsh, at Wake Forest
University School of Law, reviews the detrimental impact of the
Dodd-Frank Act ("DFA") on community banks. Her essay is a
must-read for anyone involved in the financial services
industry.
Prof. Marsh's principal argument is that DFA imposes a
"one-size-fits-all" regulatory scheme that fails to
distinguish between traditional community banks and banks with a
regional or national footprint. She identifies the added expense of
this regulatory burden as a major driver in accelerating the
disappearance of community banks and makes the case that the number
of Americans who are "underbanked"–estimated by the
FDIC to be 20% of U.S. households–will increase as access to
basic financial services provided by community banks becomes
harder.
