Despite the attempt in the Dodd-Frank Act to preserve thrift institutions, a recent report on the elimination of the Office of Thrift Supervision is bolstering the view that the charter will exist in name only.
The 28-page report on the OTS' transfer of duties to other regulators indicates that those agencies want to incorporate thrifts into their broader bank oversight rather than assigning dedicated thrift regulatory units. In the case of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, OTS examiners headed to the OCC may have to be trained to fit into its integrated system.
Many observers said that, though the thrift charter is retained, lawmakers knew that the new regulatory structure would make thrift regulation not much different from that of other institutions.
"It's inevitable that the savings and loans are going to be supervised more [as] banks have been," said Bob Clarke, a senior partner at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP and a former comptroller of the currency. "That has to be the end result of what they are going to do through training and assigning people around the country, and I think that's what Congress was trying to achieve."
Under the law, the OCC will assume oversight of the nation's 670 federal thrifts, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will supervise the 61 state-chartered thrifts, and the Federal Reserve Board will oversee thrift holding companies. The transfer must be completed by July.
The report, which was required under the new law, details how the three agencies plan to fold in OTS employees, as well as the thrift regulator's supervisory and rulemaking responsibilities.
