Video above shows a portion of the July 2, 2014 U.S. Senate candidate forum held at Sangha Hall in Hilo, Hawaii. Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa is challenging incumbent Senator Brian Schatz for the position.

Video by Tim Bryan, Forum Moderated by Sherry Bracken

HILO, Hawaii – Candidates discussed the local impact on lending of the Ability-to-Repay And Qualified Mortgage Requirements, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

These federal regulations were designed to prevent bad actors on wall street from doing bad things, but they also apply to our local banks who are trying to give people home loans. And because up the cost of housing and because of the cost of living overall, sometimes our ratios are not what you would hope to show to a regulator. And so our local bankers are oftentimes willing to take on just a tiny bit more risk and extend the home loan if they see that somebody in their judgment is credit-worthy. And that’s because our local bankers understand the local situations that we’re in, which is to say homes are expensive, incomes are – you know – are not astronomical and it’s very, very, hard. And they’re willing to extend the credit, but the regulators come in and tell them that they may not. And so that’s really what we have to work on, is to to understand the Dodd-Frank was an important aspect of re-regulating Wall Street and I think it was important that we came down on the big banks and prevented ‘too big to fail’. But that’s not what we’re talking about with our local bankers who just want to give people an opportunity to own a home for the first time.”Sen. Brian Schatz – July 2, 2014

You know we see this all the time. Whenever government has a major problem – and don’t get me wrong, the failures that we space in 2008-2009 was major – just like just like the need for health insurance was major. But then we tend to dig in in Washington and we tend to say we’ve got to somehow protect those respective laws. It takes a while. And these laws don’t function. And we have to be willing to stand up and say. ‘you know, we got amended.’ We gotta take a position and I think this is one of the issues.

We also have to understand that the banks in Hawaii have been the most stable; number one number two by Forbes itself. Bank of Hawaii, First Hawaiian Bank. But we also have another group that do fund home purchases that have a different set of challenges and those are our credit unions. I call them – and people were on the plantation know this word – I call in like the Tanomoshi banks. In other words you kind of all get together your community and you shouldn’t be subject to certain kinds of regulations.

so I think what we need to do is we need to look at these regulations that were well-intended and be willing have the courage to come forward and say it is time to change. Make it more relevant to our constituencies.”Rep. Colleen Hanabusa – July 2, 2014

SPECIAL VIDEO SECTION: Schatz vs. Hanabusa (July 2, 2014)

1. Introduction
2. Social Security
3. Economy
4. Kona Airport Customs
5. Fish & Wildlife Designations
6. Lending Restrictions
7. Native Hawaiian Education
8. Jones Act
9. Healthcare and Medicare
10. Pohakuloa Training Area, Saddle Road
11. Hawaii’s High Energy Rates
12. GMO
13. Closing

The event was sponsored by the Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce, Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Hawaii, Hawaii Island REALTORS®, Hawaii Island Contractors’ Association, Kanoelehua Industrial Area Association and the Hawaii Island Portuguese Chamber of Commerce. It was open to the community free of charge.