Was this state examiner reading out of an old play book?
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I thought I was finished blogging about the regulators.
I mean finished for a time.
Things seem to be looking up a little bit, the regulators seem to be getting a little more mellow (I attribute this in part to regulatory fatigue), and the like. A recent encounter I had the other day with a client, however, leads me to believe that is not the case at all.
Déjà vu on the regulatory stage?
This meeting was a rollback in time to three years ago when the regulators would pound the table, make unreasonable demands, both in time and substance, and generally berate whoever was in their path.
Interestingly, this was a state regulator conducting a state examination of a state- chartered bank.
I wondered, as I listened to this discussion (discussion is putting it charitably), whether the official's actions were influenced by the recent front page article in American Banker by Editor-at-Large Barbara Rehm about the fact that the federal examiners, in general, seem to be tougher on their constituents than the state examiners. I am not sure if that had anything to do with it or the fact that this was a pretty young group.
In fact, when the CEO called me and asked me to come to the meeting, he indicated, "I have shoes older than these people."
Experience--it does count for something
Is it really appropriate for a 25-year-old examiner to look at a valuation/appraisal for a piece of property and simply indicate that in his "experience," the appraisal has no credibility, even though it was done by a certified appraiser who appraises commercial property for a living?
I guess I always focus on the "in his experience" comment.
Really! How much experience could that have been?
Here we go, straight to heck
That, and the fact that the collective group of regulators set very unreasonable time demands on matters they wanted addressed by this particular institution, lead me to believe that "the regulators from hell, part 2" are back.
The difference this time is that even if the bank accepts all the preliminary regulatory findings, it will survive and be around long into the future.
It is just annoying to me, frankly, when I thought that portion of this recession was over.
About the Author
Gerrish formerly served as Regional Counsel for the Memphis Regional Office of the FDIC, with responsibility for all legal matters, including cease-and-desist and other enforcement actions. Before coming to Memphis, Gerrish was with the FDIC Liquidation Division in Washington, D.C. where he had nationwide responsibility for litigation against directors of failed banks.
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Gerrish can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and the firm’s website, www.gerrish.com.
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