PACB Letter to Senator Robert Casey

May 14, 2007

The Honorable Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senate
Room B40C Dirksen
Washington, DC 20510

Re: Co-sponsorship of S. 1356

Dear Bob:

I am writing in follow up to our visit several weeks ago to your Capitol Office in which we met with Dick Spiegelman and Nathan Steinwald to discuss a variety of priority issues for community banking including our support for maintaining the separation of banking and commerce and preventing Industrial Loan Corporations (ILCs) from breaching that separation by entering retail banking.

The FDIC has imposed a one-year moratorium (expires January ’08) on pending deposit insurance applications by ILCs that at one time included up to 14 commercial conglomerates including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Ford and others. The moratorium was placed to give the Congress time to develop sound public policy to address this very serious issue. The House is in a position to pass H.R. 698, the Frank/Gillmor proposal that would close the ILC loophole and maintain the separation of banking and commerce. To date, 10 members of our Congressional Delegation have co-sponsored H.R. 698 including the following members: Carney, Doyle, Gerlach, Holden, Murtha, Patrick Murphy, Sestak, and Schwartz. We are grateful for this strong Congressional support for this very important issue to community banking and now ask you to consider adding your name as a co-sponsor of the Senate companion bill to H.R. 698, S. 1356.

We are grateful that we have a United States Senator on the Senate Banking Committee who has a strong and deep relationship with community banking and understands the importance of maintaining Main Street banking. The ILC issue is a very real threat to community banking and to our overall economy. If the commercial conglomerates are permitted to use the ILC loophole to enter retail banking there will be very serious consequences to the continued survival of community banking and the small town business districts in which the community bank is a focal point.

I am faxing you a one page document summarizing S. 1356 and H.R. 698. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or Dave Transue. PACB appreciates your consideration of this vital issue.

Sincerely,

Frank A. Pinto
President/CEO

Cc: PACB Board of Directors
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