Saxon Renews Fund With FRB Over Policy
Saxon vigorously disputed the claim by William MeChes-j ncy Martin, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, that the quality of bank credit is deteriorating.</br></br>Martin said last month that banks are making too many risky loans because of present easy money policies.</br></br>Testifying before the House Banking and Currency Committee, Saxon made no mention of Martin or the Fed but left no doubt that they were his target.</br></br>He said the ÛÏdeterioration" charge is misleading because , ÛÏit implies that the banks have failed to exercise prudent banking judgment and that the regulatory mechanism has broken down." SaxonÛªs agency is the ÛÏregulatory mechanismÛ for national banks.</br></br>! Saxon offered figures from [ a random survey of 151 banks showing that the proportion of ÛÏcriticizedÛ loans ÛÓ those found by bank examiners to be risky ÛÓ actually decreased in a majority of them over the past three years.