Three banking regulatory agencies require 36.7 million hours of paperwork annually, including some paperwork that cannot be completed electronically, according to a new report.
In a study released Wednesday morning, the right-of-center American Action Forum reported that 50 items that banks are required to send the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the three main agencies overseeing U.S. banks — cannot be submitted electronically.
“So much of what we report to federal agencies is still done in paper format,” the study’s author, AAF director of regulatory policy Sam Batkins, told the Washington Examiner.
“When you’re talking about millions of hours wasted filling out forms, and hundreds of forms you can‘t submit online, it’s sort of shocking,” Batkins said.
The nearly 37 million hours required to fill out the required paperwork each year translates to roughly 18,000-19,000 full-time jobs.
The think tank prepared the report in response to a request for input on “outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome” regulations from the three bank regulatory agencies.
The think tank also found that there were just two regulations, the Sound Incentive Compensation rule from the Fed and the FDIC’s Regulation Z, that each imposed more than a million hours of work on banks, but have not been changed since they were enacted.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law accounted for a significant portion of the paperwork required from banks, according to AAF, including three-quarters of the FDIC’s paperwork and two-thirds of the OCC’s.
By moving to electronic reporting, reviewing large rules and consolidating paperwork requirements among agencies, the report concludes, “there are plenty of chances to streamline financial regulations” and save businesses money.
