Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following opening statement at a Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions hearing entitled, “An Examination of Regulators’ Efforts to Preserve and Promote Minority Depository Institutions.”

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Chairman Meeks.

Minority depository institutions play a vital role in serving low- to moderate-income and underbanked communities. However, we have been losing far too many MDIs over the past decade, especially black-owned banks. Since 2008, the number of black-owned banks has decreased by more than fifty percent. Just this month, we saw yet another black-owned bank forced to close its doors, leaving the total number of black-owned banks in this country to just 18.

This is a crisis and regulators have failed to live up to their statutory obligations to preserve and promote MDIs. I look forward to discussing the tools available to regulators so that this Committee can immediately address this crisis and pass legislation as needed to help MDIs – both existing and hopefully new ones –better serve their communities.

This hearing follows an October Subcommittee hearing entitled, “An Examination of the Decline of Minority Depository Institutions and the Impact on Underserved Communities.” The Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions is chaired by Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY).

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