Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood said he wants to revisit how credit unions affect regulatory reviews of bank mergers, as advocated by ICBA.
Hood’s Remarks: Speaking in Phoenix, Hood said that proposed bank mergers cannot get accurate market share information because the market share data of credit unions is not included. Hood said he plans to reach out to the Justice Department’s antitrust division to include credit union market share in how the agencies calculate the competitive effects of bank mergers.
FDIC Statement of Policy: Following ICBA advocacy, the FDIC last year approved a statement of policy on bank mergers that for the first time explicitly states that additional scrutiny may be needed for deals involving credit unions.
ICBA View: ICBA has long called on the Justice Department and bank regulators to consider competition from credit unions when evaluating bank mergers, including in letters to the OCC last year, the DOJ in 2022 and 2023, and the FDIC in 2022.