I would like to thank the Association of Military Banks and Andy Egeland for inviting me to be with you here today.
As the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I recognize the importance that community banks play in the lives of many consumers and in many neighborhoods and small towns across the United States. When I joined the Consumer Bureau, I came with a strong viewpoint that community banks were not among the causes of the financial crisis. I saw this when I was a county treasurer, then the State Treasurer of Ohio. You did not underwrite the bad loans that brought down the housing market. Instead, you worked to keep your own customers in sound and sustainable loans. You were sounding the alarm bells well before the sinking of the economy. And you were upholding sensible underwriting standards even though you may have been losing some of your customers and your market share to the financial predators who were not held to the same standards of responsible lending.