Regulators should rethink climate proposals: ICBA op-ed

While federal regulators are working to finalize climate risk proposals that purportedly target the nation's largest financial institutions, the proposals would inevitably subject community banks to new and expensive regulatory burdens, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey wrote in a new op-ed.

Decades of Experience: In American Banker, Romero Rainey said regulators should not impose climate risk regulations on community banks, which have decades of experience managing concentration risks and responding to extreme weather events. She said current risk management practices protect community banks from climate-related financial risks.

Downstream Costs: “Rather than rush to impose new standards on community banks, the agencies must ensure their climate risk regulatory efforts mitigate the downstream costs their proposals will impose on community banks and the communities they serve,” Romero Rainey wrote. Read more.