Washington, DC—As the Senate Banking Committee prepares to mark-up the ILC bill, U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), a member of the committee, released the following statement:
For nearly three years, I have been asking the same questions regarding commercial ownership of ILCs: whether the scope and purpose of industrial loan companies have expanded beyond their original purpose to serve the needs of industrial workers; whether FDIC supervision and regulation of ILCs needs to be strengthened; whether ILCs should be subject to the consolidated supervision framework established in Gramm-Leach-Bliley; and whether the ILC loophole should be closed.
After three years of debate on this issue, I believe the answers to these questions point to the need to pass legislation today that reforms the regulatory structure of ILCs, improves the supervision of ILCs, clarifies the appropriate use of an Industrial Loan Company, and closes the loophole for commercial ownership of taxpayer-insured depository institutions.
Johnson is hopeful the bill will pass the Committee with a bipartisan vote today and will be brought to the Senate floor for a vote swiftly.
In May, Senator Johnson, along with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Wayne Allard (R-CO), introduced the bipartisan Industrial Bank Holding Company Act (S. 1356), to restore the separation of banking and commerce by preventing additional commercial firms from acquiring or establishing industrial loan companies (ILC).
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For more information on Senator Tim Johnson visit his website at http://johnson.senate.gov.
To contact Senator Johnson’s communications office via e-mail, write his Communications Director at Julianne_Fisher@Johnson.Senate.gov or his Deputy Communications Director at Megan_Smith@Johnson.Senate.gov
