Sign Oregon Banking Permission Slip Later

Industry sign banking oregon permission slip later

good afternoon and welcome to the regular Friday meeting of the City Club of Portland I'm Jim westwood your president please continue leading I see we still have several people going through the line as well we have some introductions and some announcements to make an advance so don't worry will you still have time to eat I'd like to first welcome new members to the city club the lifeblood of the club and we have three new members seated at the new members table I'd like them to stand and please hold your applause till I've introduced them each first is dr. Stanley Lewis professor emeritus from the city university of new york Donna Steadman an investor with Stedman industries and Jerry udal ssin vice president of Pacific Coast environmental incorporated welcome all 32 city covered and our thanks to our city club member recruiters Margie Lewis Simpson and kitty ruler next Friday September 6th the director of the State Housing and Community Services Department ray Ramsey will be here speaking on housing Oregon's new social assistance vehicle the decline in federal housing support over the last decade has produced an affordable housing crisis and a burgeoning population of homeless persons as director of the state's newly consolidated lead agency for housing and social services ray Ramsey will address how the state can use housing to solve its most pressing social problems that will be next friday September sixth here at the benson hotel in the Mayfair room two weeks from today Friday September 13th will hear from William lawyer professor emeritus from University of Hawaii speaking on environmental rights for future generations is it the impossible dream if an initiative is adopted in 1992 it would be the first set of environmental rights in the United States including rights for future generations and interesting and provocative subject that also will be here in the benson hotel mayfair room Friday September 13th you'll note in this week city court bulletin that club members have an opportunity to meet travel and ski Europe that won't be this summer it'll be this winter with members of the commonwealth club of san francisco city club is co-sponsoring with the commonwealth club a nine-day ski trip and tour to Engelberg switzerland that will be februari 28th to march seventh nineteen ninety-two in coordination with the commonwealth club of san francisco for more information please contact the city clubs executive director nancy Hadean at the city club office very important all of you received in the mail this week a special letter announcing the four really spectacular events that we have planned for City club's 75th anniversary celebration beginning September 27th please mark your calendars today for those four very special Friday events beginning on the 27th extending into October and then please watch closely for more information on how you make your reservations for those our board hosted a seated at the head table is Mary McWilliams member of the board of governors and the chief executive officer of sisters of providence oregon health plans she of course will have the pleasure of asking the first question of our speaker the second question will be asked from the microphone at the floor on the floor by M savage a member of the business and labor standing committee after that as always we open up the meeting to questions from the audience from City Club members only after the speaker's prepared remarks and our speaker is anticipating a lot of lively questions please do think of them as he's speaking and he's ready to be pinned down he says written questions for those of you remain anonymous will be asked as time permits there are forms on your tables for those written questions please hold them up after the speech so that staff can gather them and bring them up to the podium last month we heard one of our friday speakers tell us that the media are badly biased in favor of Corporate America and presumably that would be in the media are biased in favor of the banks as well well if the stories we read about the crisis in the banking industry in the media are evidence of hits couch owing to the banks we should tremble at what the real truth of that matter is Congress has authorized I think as yet untold billions of our money to bail out the deposit of depositors of sale failed Savings and Loan institutions and now we see from time to time the figures on bank failures around the country at a rate greater than at any time since the depression the bank seemed to be victims of a risky real estate market and of a lingering recession well so far Oregon banks seem to be bucking that trend but will that last are we at the door of calamity or is the whole banking industry crisis just a fabrication put together by someone with smoke and mirrors for some ulterior motive our speaker today can address those questions and more Frank burner has been executive vice president of the Oregon Bankers Association for 16 years before that he was a vice president of Oregon mutual savings bank he served as assistant to the speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and he was a loan officer and branch manager for American investment company mr. Brunner has also been very involved in civic activities he has been president of the Oregon JC's the Oregon advertising club president of the Boys Clubs of Portland he's been a president of many different things and a chairman of the park girls school board I think he got the message Frank burner is a public-spirited citizen who can also teach us a few things about what's up in the banking industry and so now i present to you Frank runner thank you very much poison gym I appreciate that I'm also a notary public you can note that please I understand the mission of the City Club of Portland I have for all of the time that I've been in the Willamette Valley since nineteen sixty I understand your mission is to inform and advise for the good of Portland and the good of Oregon and I appreciate and commend you for your accomplishments I want to thank all of the friends that are here today some I haven't seen for some time and all of the bankers there's probably more bankers here in this room then at some of the millions of the Oregon Bankers Association june sixteenth 1933 it's a very important day for banking june sixteenth 1933 is when FDIC was created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was born june sixteenth 1933 glass-steagall was passed by the congress the united states the wall was built between banking and commerce banking couldn't engage in commerce commerce couldn't in the engage in banking patterned after english law england repealed platteville version of glass-steagall 1935 june sixteenth 1933 banking as we know it today was defined june sixteenth 1933 the regulatory process that is in place today was created june sixteenth 1933 a very important day for banking jun 22nd 1933 a very important day for oregon banking well not all of oregon banking not very many well just for one in Oregon banking that's the day I was born now my point is all of my life the banking industry has not changed as far as federal statute is concerned is it any wonder that there are headlines today in 1991 is there any wonder that we find ourselves where we are today Congress is in recess right now and for that some would say we should be thankful but when our senators and representatives returned to Washington in a couple weeks they'll be working on what could become one of the most important banking bills in the history of this country their focus when they return should be to pass legislation that allows banks to become more efficient and more competitive and continues to ensure the safety and soundness of the depositors in our institutions if that happens the winners will be the banks of course but more importantly our customers local communities the US taxpayer in the nation's economy both the Senate Banking Committee and the House Banking Committee have passed their versions of what they believe is needed most of these proposals we support some of the titles we oppose as an example the senate version contains additional regulatory burden for banks which will add greatly to our cost of doing business it reminds me of the story of President Grover Cleveland he was always at odds with the US Senate but apparently got along very well with the house leadership one night in bed his wife shook him awake and said wake up there are burglars in their house and his answer supposedly was no no my dear in the Senate maybe but not in the house well whether or not we like everything in the bill at this point is not important what is important is that the Congress finally finally is doing something about our industry Congress has tended to move slowly on banking reform and almost always after a Christ's the Civil War led to the creation of the national banking system in America the great banking panic panic of 1907 led to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 the Great Depression I've already discussed june sixteenth 1933 and now the S&L crisis and a weakened bank insurance fund are pushing Congress again to do something about banking even in crisis Congress rarely moves quickly grass falls debate over the budget deficit as you watched was long and frustrating in 1948 remember in a message to the congress president truman orig statehood for alaska it was finally adopted eleven years later banking reform is coming too we're just not sure if it will come this year or what it will look like once we've got it but the banking industry has some pretty definite ideas on what a reform package should contain as you've imagined we have been sharing argues with members of Congress the bush administration and our federal regulators and i am pleased to have this opportunity to share some thoughts with you today let me begin by discussing what Oregon bankers are looking for out of all of this let's start with deposit insurance it's been an effective and successful system for almost 60 years during that time banks have failed but not one single depositor has lost a nickel in an fdic-insured account the system works today the insurance limit is a hundred thousand dollars per account and we think it ought to stay there at least for now also we should keep the current system for a while of insuring multiple accounts in the same institution it's our belief that now is not a good time to tinker with the public confidence in America's banking system the level of deposit insurance coverage should not be changed let me tell you that both the Senate bill and the House bill subscribe to that as well there is one important change that must be made we have been arguing in support of that change for the last several years you probably have heard of the problem it's called too big to fail let me give you an example of how it works in real life when the FDIC closed the Bank of New England late last year protected all depositors even uninsured depositors beyond the normal $100,000 women the bank was deemed too big to fail the economic consequences were believed to wait to permit uninsured depositors to lose a bit earlier the FDIC closed freedom national bank a very small institution in Harlem in that instance the FDIC did not insured depositors beyond the hundred thousand dollar limit that bank and the depositors took a loss they were called too small to save well that's the problem with too big to fail it is a fair isn't fair to the depositors of smaller banks isn't fair to the banks themselves all of America's banks the big banks now recognize that it's time to get rid of too big to fail in fact they were represented on a task force that made the suggestions to the Treasury Department that are in both bills pending in Congress I not go into the details of the plan but we're pleased that it has been it was included in the bush administration's proposal and its basic purpose is to see that all banks and all bank depositors are treated equally if a bank fails now closing the Bank of New England incidentally will cost the FDIC 2.5 billion dollars we look forward to eliminating the instances of bank failures all together businesses fails and our creative fail and are created all the time in a free enterprise system and that's fine but this the business of banking is central to the economy banks must become stronger and more competitive than they are today now let's discuss the financial services market place and the share that all financial institutions assets the bank's share has have dropped from forty percent in 1974 to twenty nine percent at the end of last year let me tell you sixty percent when I began my banking career where did I might go where did our share go it went to our competition companies like series which now issue credit cards broke the real estate sell and underwrite life insurance and offer a full line of mutual funds Sears today owns four FDIC insured depository institutions remember that wall that was supposed to keep commerce on one side and banking on the other side hasn't worked recently take forward its sub subsidiary Ford financial services has assets of 115 babe that would make an America's third largest bank with only the new Bank of America incorporated in citicorp larger general electric's subsidiary GE Capital is the second largest finance company in the United States it makes more loans to corporations than any bank in America except citicorp the name of general electric's fdic-insured Bank is monogram bank prudential insurance company is not just the largest insurance company in the nation it also owns the tenth largest securities firm an fdic-insured Bank and one of the nation's largest real estate firms based on market capitalization it is the nation's largest financial firm I can go on and on but I think you get the point these firms all offer financial services but without the same protections for consumers and the federal government that are provided through the more heavily regulated US banking system the reality of today's marketplace is that banking has is done everywhere and by everyone worse the laws of banking have kept banks confined to a very narrow piece of the market other companies combined banking insurance and security services today any company can buy a savings alone an insurance company or a securities firm or are three any company can do those things except one kind of company a commercial banking company the micro place has simply passed us by The Economist magazine put it recently banks no longer dominate the financial system deregulation has brought in lots of new lenders and new ways of bringing lenders and borrowers together and the Wall Street Journal said a year ago one by one the traditional raw Springs of bank profits are drying up now one US bank in America today is in the 20th largest banks in the world ranked by deposits only one US bank can be found in the world's 50th largest banks when ranked by assets the merger activity we're seeing between big banks today is one more indication that banks are examining every way possible to increase their competitiveness now all of this has prompted Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady to tell Congress last month of all financial firms banks have the most restriction on the range of their activities their affiliations and ability to tap private capital at the same time innovation and competition from firms that are not subject to these restrictions have eroded the value of the bank's traditional franchise banking is where it is today because we've not been permitted to change deregulation was begun but never finished reform has been talked about but never enacted now we are at a crisis stage and banks are being tired with the S&L crisis even though our problems are fundamentally different from those of the Savings and Loan industry banking's commentaire competitive problems have been building for quite a long time some people trace our current problems to the military buildup in the Vietnam War when President Johnson told the nation it could have both guns and butter inflation rose interest rates rose and the Wall Street invented the money market fund to compete with banks for their customers needs the money market funds where you could write checks and earn higher interest rates th y were not regulated and they offered a lot more return in the same convenience and people left banks I was a marketing officer in those days we would advertise five and a quarter percent that's what the government said we could pay we tried to make the advertisement very appealing inflation was in excess of 10 but we still told people it was a good deal to come and do business with us bank's weren't hit as hard by all of this as worthy SNL's banks were diversified in commercial loans and other assets but the SNL's were not they have long-term low-interest mortgage loans so they couldn't compete very well with Wall Street's higher interest product in the early 80s 250 billion had escaped the depository system and was in money market mutual funds the savings and loan industry went to Uncle Sam and let's remember the Savings and Loan industry was created to house America and they did a very good job they were bowing overnight from their deposit making fixed-rate loans for 30 years and it caught up with us there are people even in this audience that will remember when we thought as bankers you could not make a bad real estate loan no way could the bank lose on real estate when we went to Congress in 1980 FDIC insurance was forty thousand dollars we suggested it be raised to 50,000 these Savings and Loan industry suggested it be raised to a hundred thousand and as the nation's housing lenders the congress responded it made it a hundred thousand the government helped in other ways the old Federal Home Loan Bank board lifted the five percent cap on the amount of brokered deposits of thrift could accept hot money flowed into the one-state SNL's now able to to make every capitalist beam come true they offered high interest zero risk investments and in order to attract this money the SNL's had to offer higher and higher interest rates on their deposits as they competed among themselves for new sources of funds thus was born the S&L crisis in about two years time the collective net worth of the S&L industry dropped from thirty two billion dollars to 3.7 billion many other regulatory and legal efforts were made in the 80s to try to rescue the thrift industry for example the guy in st. Germain act of nineteen eighty-two gave thrifts many bank like capabilities but it didn't make snl's comply with the same capital and reserve requirements as banks banks have always had tougher capital requirements and savings of moons when I guess today I'd have to say thank God that's a major reason why our problems aren't the same as those of the SMS by the time the SNL price has finally caught the attention of Congress it was too late perhaps several hundred billion dollars too late we won't know the cost for years and years there is a total difference between a banking late and savings alone regulated and it was brought about by Congress Congress said go forth and create housing for Americans to the SNL regulator and our bank and they were cheerleaders our regulators have been always I guess umpires and they do a good job at it we top just SAT there for a moment about the condition of origin banking and the national banking picture or even banks as an industry rank first second third or fourth in any rating system in America as being the safest and sounds banks in this country I can tell you that's due to a lot of reasons but one of the reasons is we have great management in Oregon it de-stresses me always when a bank fails is because of management when a bank succeeds is because of the economy I'd like to give credit where it is due yes we have a good economy in Oregon yes we do but we also have some great bank managers so we're on the top of the heap and we intend to stay there nicely here's another difference between us and the other industry in 1990 our net profit as an industry was sixteen point four billion dollars ninety-one percent of the banks in America made a profit in nineteen eighty two hundred and seventy eight billion is the net worth of the banking industry as I stand before you that includes loan loss reserves 278 billion I would tell you that there is nothing in the pipeline waiting to surprises yes we have problems the problem list of banks are the west of problem banks is shrinking the numbers of favs the expectations is declining and we admit that we have problems but 278 billion dollars worth of net worth is hardly an industry headed for disaster to compete effectively in today's financial marketplace banks have had to do special things in insurance for example we've had to go to each separate state to win limited rights to sell insurance banks can't offer their own mutual funds so some banks have set up very limited narrowly defined discount brokerage subsidiaries none of this is very efficient only the biggest of the bank's seem to be able to do it with success but it's the best we can do without federal legislative reform well that's the solution we need a structural framework that allows us to compete in a full range of financial services one attractive model is in the house and senate bill it's called the financial services holding company model it would provide that a holding company with financial subsidiaries and each of those subs could offer a specific financial service these would be regulated separately and the individual subs would have strict laws governing what they could and could not do with the other subs for example the security subsidiary could sell mutual funds it would be regulated by the SEC a bank subsidiary could offer insured deposits and make loans and be regulated just as they are today like a bank the insurance sub could sell life auto and other types of insurance and it'd be regulated by the insurance authority of the state the winner in this would be the consumer who could buy financial services from banks and other companies as they can today and that should bring down the cost of their service to increase competition are all of our problems related to competition no they're certainly not we've seen a new phenomenon in America called regional economic recessions the farm crisis of the 1980s caught us and we had problem banks and we had failures by the way today the farm sector in our industry is one of the strongest sectors there is the collapse of the oil and real estate markets in the southwest LDC loan problems at the money center banks real estate problems in new england and so on and we will admit that we have made some mistakes to some of our banks concentrated there that's a little too closely others lent a little bit too eagerly we invested in real estate loans without knowing that you could make a bad real estate loan Yogi Berra said one time we just got to quit making the wrong mistakes some people like to say that the banking industry is lucky because we have deposit insurance they forget a perhaps they don't know that banks pay for deposit insurance the bank insurance fund the fund that ensures depositors accounts will be recapitalised this year it must be what you're hearing and reading about today is a discussion over where the FDIC will borrow the needed money Bob the needed money to strengthen the fund that could be the Treasury the Fed or some other source doesn't matter it will be recapitalised both the Senate and the House versions of banking reform legislation contain recapitalisation it will make the bank insurance fund safe and sound but wherever it comes from you can be sure of one thing the banks will be painted back and not the taxpayer deposit insurance like any other type of insurance is paid for by the policyholder in this case the policyholder are the bank's effective July first this year we raised our premiums to 23 cents per one hundred dollars of deposit or nearly four times what we were paying just 18 months ago in 1988 organ banks sent 12 million dollars to Washington DC for our deposit insurance premium this year we will send 42 million dollars we're swallowing hard my friend in Massachusetts told me about four years ago that we should introduce legislation to make the Texans the Texas citizens bail out the Texas financial institutions because it was just unconscionable for the healthy banks in Massachusetts to have to pay the premiums he's not talking that way today our bankers are understandably asking and our customers should be asking when will it stop where will it stop we have to consider the effects there is a point beyond which if you raise premiums you begin to fail institutions every dollar we put into deposit insurance means that that's six dollars that is lost to our customers in the form of loans we can't make someday we might come to the realization that deposit insurance cannot be afforded now we would like to see a strong insurance fund balanced by strong banks honestly and sincerely we think it can be done and we also think now that it will be done Congress has got to act and act rapidly and they've got to realize what is politically safe could well be economic disaster not just for the banking system but for this country what also we concerned about as we look at this big bill we're worried about the growth of federal regulation it's getting tougher to make loans or profits with the geometric growth in bank regulation I think Congress is beginning to be sensitive about this I think the administration is being sensitive Treasury deputy Treasury secretary John Robinson said a couple weeks ago that regulation is not intended to be a terrorist activity we'd like to see some proof of that a bank of 65 employees nationally has five employees working full-time for the federal government the fastest growth department in any bank in America today is our community reinvestment compliance Department Proxmire in 1977 stood on the floor of the Senate without a hearing in past CRA saying that no bank would ever have to fill out a single form well you ought to look at our file cabinets as matter of fact full floors we recently had to notify all of our depositors of a very my new change in FDIC insurance it was a change that would only affect about 3% of our customers every single customer was mandated to receive the notice cost of the notice was 80 million dollars interstate banking is on the table in Washington interstate branching as well doesn't bother us in Oregon 1985 we brought forth interstate banking it has worked well for our state some people said the big New York banks would buy up every bank in sight well that's just not going to happen what one thing will always be sure that we will have community banks and we will have branch banking banks and we must work to make sure that the environment that they work in causes them to be strong both bills address this we think that the interstate banking agreement should make it easier for banks to move across state lines and that the and also that the bill ought to respect the state's local authority in determining how banks can enter the state we let me summarize or what we want in the bill we seek reform of deposit insurance and into too big to fail maintaining the current levels of insurance maintaining the current multiple account now's not the time to shake the to shake the mist we want banks able to compete much more efficiently and more effectively we need to eliminate artificial barriers we don't want to get in the manufacturing business we don't want to sell automobiles we'd like to offer financial services like others we'd like to see a significant reduction in the federal paperwork required Truth in Lending obviously we support truth and lending but let me ask each of you when's the last time you read all of the fine print on the government mandated disclosure we give to you wouldn't it be easier if we can make that big print and make it make sense the federal paperwork paperwork burden is already unbelievably huge in the bill is risk-based premiums for deposit insurance if you're going to run a risky bank you going to pay more and that's the way it should have been twenty years ago in the ball is risk-based capital you're going to run a risky bank your capital requirements go up there are five zones regulatory zones contained in the bill and if you are a zone one and it's based upon capital ratios if you are a zone one you'll be able to do more for your customers offer additional services than if you're a zone 5 bank it provides for early intervention by the regulator now we think there's a 50-50 chance let's broke a pass we also think that each passing day the situation gets worse and the odds increase that all we get is FDIC recapitalisation if that happens we'll be back next year with another recapitalisation and the year after that if we don't reform the system we will not be able to use FDIC insurance as the anchor to keep us in business most of the forecast that we see out of FDIC and the General Accounting Office deal with the worst-case scenario and the worst-case scenario would indicate that the economy does have a lot to do with what happens in New England and elsewhere if the recession is over and some say it is some say it isn't some say it's bouncing around and but whatever happens all of the predictions that you read in the newspaper are based upon the worst-case scenario it has taught us that we've just got to be smarter as we move in to this into the year 2000 we've got to have banks of their competitive now mergers alone will not do it for banks we need this legislation so that we can have banks that exist to serve individuals families small businesses municipalities and we needed even more to serve these people one of the questions we've been asking ourselves as does the public care about all of this or is this strictly of intramural effort on the part of banging is there any interest in the public in banking reform well when it comes to public interest I think of the story of the political candidate who was given his usual stump speech he said I want land reform I want housing reform I want edge reform I want some and he went on someone in the audience shouted how about some chloroform I think the good news is that the public really does care about our industry and what happens one way we measured this is to look at the nation's newspapers they've been covering banking issues more regularly some would say sometimes too regularly I'm just kidding we've also seen a surprisingly strong call by many of these newspapers for a real change in the banking laws and we appreciate that and think it's commendable for example the Chicago Tribune said the White House and Congress should change Deposit Insurance making it fair and less protective of reckless lending and they should free America's banks to compete this will take courage and leadership but it's the surest way to strengthen the financial system and protect the taxpayers in the long run The Wall Street Journal said we hope everyone can agree that fundamental changes are needed if this country is going to have a safe reliable and competitive banking industry the New York Times editorial said Congress can't intelligently decide how to reform deposit insurance without knowing how it wishes to reform the banking system disconnecting the two systems risked a big and lasting mistake The Times editorial concluded a healthy economy needs healthy banks the American banking system is on the ropes and cannot afford a Congress that bidders and so on if these papers are any gauge of public opinion and people are paying attention to the banking issues and they support change the important thing to recognize is that the problems facing our industry are nowhere near as big as those that were faced by the Savings and Loan industry the Christian Science Monitor put it a few months ago the big story in banking is not the rising tide of failures but rather the fundamental soundness of the system for every bank in serious trouble in America today can we remember that there are nine banks that are profitable safe and sound we know that this banking debate will not be solved swiftly bankers have been going to Congress for many years to get basic fundamental changes enacted the French writer Hugo said to reform a min you must begin with his grandmother we've been working about that long to get banking reform but I think we're closer today than we've ever been before our strongest argument for a sound reform is that it will be good for consumers the US economy in general the Bush administration recognizes that the newspapers increasingly recognized out and I think the Congress in its own deliberate way will recognize that the questions are do we need banks I think the answer is yes do we need banking done by banks I think the answer is yes do we need strong banks that are permitted to compete I think the answer is yes crisis in the banking industry perception of reality of course both of those are happening there is a christ 1986 however the congress said Full Faith and Credit of the United States government is behind deposit insurance so I want to make sure everybody understands the deposits are protected are there misconceptions in the marketplace you bet do we need to have the public helpless we can't do it without the public we need to look to the future is the glass half full or half empty I believe it's half full and soon will be full the clock is ticking so Congress you better move can I have your questions thank you very much mr. Brunner the first question we asked by board member and board hosts merriment Williams mr. bronner you've made a good argument for why the banking industry needs to diversify into a full range of financial products and specifically you mentioned insurance services and what I'm curious about is in reading about the difficulties in the insurance industry is this a time for banks to be going into a line where they would take on additional insurance risk in the insurance holding company scenario pending in Congress any of these activities would have a firewall between it and the bank the insured the possible I do not think insured deposits ought to be put at risk for any venture that a bank enters into I think that's been our mistake in the past moreover the biggest part of the insurance industry that ought to be provided by the bank is simply brokering simply selling the insurance people today can go to an insurance company and borrow money to finance their home their car what have you and even get a certificate of deposit from the insurance company's own bank we can't compete if we can't provide the full range of services to our customers it's been proven time and time again that competition decreases the price and benefits consumers full disclosure making sure that no one is coerced into buying an insurance product that's the part of the Oregon law that was passed by the legislature in this state in 1987 given state-chartered banks the opportunity to sell not underwrite insurance I mean sorry to the business and labor standing committee with the recent European changes and more recently the follow the Communist Party in the USSR what role do you see the US banks playing in the international market well I think my own personal opinion would be that we ought to be kind of like bush right now okay gotta wait for tomorrow it's changing so rapidly I think there is a role I think there's a very important role probably the first role is to finance American companies that have the opportunity to go to the Soviet Union or whatever we call the resultant to produce products and services and to enter into partnerships I think that's a very important role I also think that that the banking system in America needs to help them create their own central bank if you don't have a central bank in Russia you have the rubles that our swamp in the country you have no exchange and I don't know how you can bring a free marketplace to a country that doesn't have that I there is a task force of high-level bankers already at work as to how we interface they've been working since class notes began but now I would say that they probably got in different agenda and it's probably more urgent I appreciate the question it it allows me to say one other thing american banking has been around since america has been america we helped finance the Revolutionary War I could go through the scenario of the crisis that this country is faced at the banking system of America the commercial banking system was on tap I'm kind of proud of my industry in case you haven't guessed it sure one member would you talk about the American banks ability to compete with Japanese banks and where you see that going in the future well the numbers I gave you about our standing in the market may not be all that disruptive or it may not be that depressing you see we still have 13,000 banks in America and we believe in having community banks and strong like the larger banks and branch banks and so forth at least in this state it's impossible for us to compete with Japanese banks head-to-head in most instances in many instances their government is much more involved in the banking system in determining investments and so forth and they have a handful of banks I don't know if 20-24 and I'd hate to see this country come to that I am concerned about credit allocation in the form of Japanese government to allocation to to Japanese banks by the same token they are competitive even when they deal with retail deposit customers in Japan they can offer the full range of services that we hope that someday we can it it's like an American company competing with the Japanese come you got to understand how Japanese new things I'm Marcia slappy didn't it enjoyed your speech ever so much let's get really right down to a home now what are the people in bank of america and security Pacific going to do about jobs you can't keep them all see I didn't expect that question today well that's the unfortunate part of a merger that is good for Oregon mr. Martin's is here from security Pacific and there's probably representatives here from bank of america I just haven't seen it I would suggest to you that those two banks becoming married in Oregon is good for this state they both are sound well-managed profitable safe and sound this is not a merger of two fallen angels then a Phoenix comes out of the ice is no no this is something that will be good for Oregon and good for everyone except those that are displaced I have talked to the human resources department of both of those institutions they're going to do everything the proper way as you would expect them to do and do everything they can to have outplacement services it's we learned some time ago when mergers first begin one of the great lies other you know the rest of them but things aren't the same after the merger we finally discovered that and I'm afraid some people in both institutions will discover that again I don't know what you can say of the fact that if you can bring the two banks together and make them more efficient the consumers of this state and of their region will benefit and I think that's what a banker has to look at thank you how do you explain gbbr the question is how do I explain them CBB I I don't it isn't CBI is a term of it yeah BCCI see that's how I explain it I don't know anything about well don't blame the American banking system for this don't blame the Americas regulators this is one time the Congress gets off the hook too they did purchase an institution in in Washington DC and by the way many congressmen bank there and it is a tightly regulated well-run institution that is a part of the multi-nation combine I don't think that the the banking structure in the world was equipped to regulate a multinational National Bank we've not seen that phenomenon like that and so I suspect rules are going to change I can't explain money laundering we have no you don't know how much of the burden that we face on a daily basis to report on extra large cash transactions money laundering has a double meaning for us and in this area bank robberies ninety-seven percent of them are drug-related if you think we're not interested in doing something about the drug trafficking in this state you're mistaken we are very concerned about that and so we fill out our ctrs our cash transaction reports with pride and sentiment there should be no excuse for that to occur again and sorry it happened the first time I don't think any us depositors are going to lose them I just don't think so seeing nobody coming to the microphone I'd like to ask a question mr. Brunner he said that organ banks are among the best managed banks around what is it that we're doing right that other banks aren't doing so well in management well in the early 80s I didn't tell you that part of the story we had 13 bank failures in the state of Oregon in Tennessee they were having failures it was the butcher brothers that had a bunch of banks in the individual banks that they owned and they were unscrupulously the morally using those banks and and they finally are there serving time today and those banks failed the only other failures in America were in Oregon first bank to fail was nineteen eighty one in lepine I held a press conference at the Capitol and said it was an aberration wouldn't happen again of the next Friday I was back in front of press I didn't have the third press conference you take all of our failures put together and it didn't told two hundred million dollars and no deposit let me repeat no depositor of an insured deposit lost a time as a matter of fact no deposit lost dime except a couple corporates in one institution and it wasn't very much shareholders lost shareholders lost and managers lost and I got to tell you that experience and while I wouldn't have believed it at the time was probably the healthiest thing that could happen for Oregon banking and for Oregon we learned some things that we haven't forgot nor will we and I can I think that's the biggest contribution to where we are today we are well managed but we've had we've gone to school on how to be well managed do we have any further questions from the floor now if you could make it rid of the microphone people that saw our radio audience can hear you that'd be helpful the august issue of Fortune magazine had an article from a bank analyst talking about merging of banks and why they merge he eventually wrapped up the article stating that he thought there would be super banks 10 to 15 what is your opinion at that in which banks do you see will eventually be in that position if indeed that's what will happen well thank you for the question that's poppycock I heard that in I heard that in 1975 as a matter of fact I think the first time that soon we'd be down to a thousand banks and then eventually 210 banks like Canada well let's look at what's happened a very strong key bank comes to the state of Oregon and acquires an institution in corvallis I mean an Albany called citizens Valley Bank very very strong bank I the only other community bank in the town of Albany was also acquired what do we have in Albany today we have a strong key bank US bank first interstate and i'm going to leave out somebody and but we also have a brand new lynn linn-benton bank chartered a year ago and very healthy already in the black I'm telling you communities know that if they have a strong community bank and strong regional banks they got the best of both worlds when there is a glut of deposits in brookings it can be moved to Pendleton where it's needed but you have a bank in brookings we're just about Brookings I don't think the community bank will ever leave the face of our earth and we better hope that I think the big banks better hope that because quite frankly the big banks and the small banks do a good job in serving customers when they work together now let me also add Orion is unique in a number of other ways we've had branch banking since the late 40s we have no restrictive restriction other than regulatory approval to branch in this state we have 55 banks 800 banking offices I give up on trying to count the ATMs after we passed a thousand if you don't think making isn't competitive among itself in this state talked to a banker all we're asking for is to be able to compete with the rest of the crowd Jackie rubber city club member where will the new business or small ongoing business look for capitalization or refunding in the future well I would hope they would look to the banking system I would hope that we have we have banks that are specializing in small business finance if you're talking about venture capital I keep hitting something down there that doesn't like it if you're talking about venture capital that's not what a banks and business to do anyway one of the dilemmas faced more today by a banker than ever before is that fine line people want us to make more loans to more people they also want us to make sure that we do it prudently in other words we're criticized on one side for not doing the safe and sound thing and on the other side were criticized for pulling in our horns some people do they call it the credit crunch I just kind of think that we're is sort of falling out both in the industry and in banking my belief is that the banking system will be the best source for business finance is today and will be in the future that is a share of the market that we know how to do and will do it well thank you seeing no further questions I want to thank mr. Brunner again for his articulate and very informative addressed today and as we adjourn what's all offer our thanks to him