OKLAHOMA CITY – The state’s Banking and Credit Union boards recently approved 70% reductions in assessments that their respective state-chartered institutions will be charged next year.
The State Banking Board approved Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson’s recommendation to reduce 2025 assessments paid by Oklahoma state-chartered banks, the agency announced after its Nov. 20 meeting.
After setting assessments at the rate first established in 2004, the board then approved a discount of 70% for banks with assets less than $1 billion and 25% for banks with assets exceeding $1 billion. Oklahoma has 139 state-chartered banks.
Similarly, the State Credit Union Board approved Thompson’s recommendation to cut 2025 assessments that will be paid by Oklahoma state-chartered credit unions. After setting assessments at the rate first established in 2006, the board then approved a discount of 70% for each of the 10 state-chartered credit unions.
A year ago, the state Banking Board authorized a 60% reduction in 2024 assessments and the state Credit Union Board approved a 50% reduction in 2024 assessments.
When Thompson became Oklahoma Banking Commissioner in 1992 he began lowering assessment rates for banks and credit unions, Deputy Commissioner Dudley Gilbert told Southwest Ledger.
“The rates were lowered several times before finally settling at the rates set in 2004 and 2006,” Gilbert said.
The boards have approved reductions in assessments for state-chartered banks and credit unions consistently since 2012, Thompson indicated.
The commissioner presented a proposed budget to the boards that reflected how the department “can continue to operate efficiently even with such a large discount.”
Based on estimates, “This year’s reduction will result in the department operating with a budget deficit for 2025 and require it to use a portion of its reserve funds to make up the difference,” Thompson said.
He contends the department “should not hold excessive reserve funds,” and said the board’s action will allow the department to maintain a reserve account that “provides a reasonable cushion for unplanned events, but will also fit within the Governor’s call to be fiscally responsible.”
Thompson said a reduction in assessments is “one of the ways the Banking Department can reduce regulatory burden on state-chartered institutions.” Most regulatory matters “are issued from the federal government and states cannot directly eliminate that burden,” he acknowledged.
However, he said, “any savings achieved by a reduction in assessments can be redirected toward other operations and help offset increased costs incurred to comply with federal laws.”
This year’s reduction amounts to more than $5.2 million, and the total reduction in assessments for Oklahoma banks over the past several years is more than $30 million, Thompson said.
A “state profile” of Oklahoma banks in the second quarter of this year, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued on Oct. 2, reported Oklahoma had 177 state-chartered and national banks. Of those institutions:
• 4 had assets exceeding $10 billion.
• 18 had assets of more than $1 billion up to $10 billion.
• 66 had assets of more than $250 million up to $1 billion.
• 45 had assets ranging from $100 million to $250 million.
• 44 banks had assets of less than $100 million.