Memo to PA Congressional Delegation

On behalf of the 175 community banks PACB represents, we are urging you to consider co-sponsoring legislation that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) & Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) will be reintroducing to prohibit commercial firms from chartering or acquiring Industrial Loan Corporations (ILCs). The ILC loophole would allow commercial giants including Wal-Mart & Home Depot to gain a foothold in banking breaching the separation of banking and commerce which has been a linchpin of our economic system since the 1930’s.

We believe this is an area that must be addressed by the Congress in this new session particularly since there are a number of ILC applications pending for consideration before the FDIC for deposit insurance.

We are appreciative of the Members of our delegation who have previously sent letters to the FDIC or co-sponsored the Frank/Gillmor bipartisan legislation, H.R. 5746, last session. These members included: Brady, Doyle, Fattah, Holden, Kanjorski, and Platts.

We urge all members of our delegation to consider adding your name to the Frank/Gillmor legislation. A strong co-sponsorship of this legislation will send a strong signal to the FDIC that it should extend the moratorium on ILC applications set to expire on January 31, 2007 leaving the Congress time to adequately address this issue.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dave Transue, PACB’s Government Affairs Consultant. Thank you for your consideration.