Higher Assessments for Thrift Servicers?

The Office of Thrift Supervision is proposing to charge institutions with large servicing operations an additional assessment next year.The OTS wants to bring thrift assessments in line with the actual costs of examination and regulation. And institutions with complex off-balance-sheet activities, such as servicing and trust activities, would have to pay more. As proposed, thrifts with more than $1 billion in loans serviced for others would pay an additional assessment of 0.0015% on their servicing portfolio -- pushing up their costs. America's Community Bankers estimates that 40 thrifts would be affected by the proposal. Assessments on thrifts engaged in traditional thrift activities would see their assessments decline, however. "While there are many positive aspects to the proposal, we will have to see if institutions with very high amounts of these complex categories, particularly loan servicing, are inordinately burdened by this proposal," said ACB regulatory specialist Gary Gilbert. The comment period on the proposal ends Oct. 13.