Southern Bank Co.

From: Gates Little [mailto:glittle76@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 4:23 PM
To: Comments
Subject: Community Reinvestment: RIN number 3064-AC50

Gates Little
President
The Southern Bank Co.
221 S. 6th St.
Gadsden, AL 35901

September 17, 2004

Robert E. Feldman

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429

Dear Robert Feldman:

As a community banker, I am pleased to comment in support of the proposal
issued by the FDIC that would amend the definition of a small institution
to be a bank that is under $1 billion in assets. I believe that this
change will provide much needed regulatory burden relief for me and other
community bankers. It seems that every week there is a new or additional
regulation with which we must comply. This is one example of regulatory
burden relief that will really make a difference. I would much rather use
the limited resources available to my bank to serve my community than to
collect and maintain data and documents to prove to examiners that I am
meeting the needs of my community.

[please include something about your institution, its size, the area it
serves, number of employees]

Compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act is something we take very
seriously at our bank. We don’t just believe it is the right thing to do;
we believe it is the right business thing to do. No community bank can
survive and compete without meeting the needs of its customers and
communities. We believe in our community and in our customers and want to
work with them to provide products and services that best meet their
credit needs. We do not need a complicated examination process to show
that we are complying with the law.

It is absurd to think that a bank thousands of times larger than my own
community bank should be examined using the same procedures. I strongly
urge you to amend the definition of a small bank for CRA purposes to be an
institution with less than $1 billion in assets, regardless of whether the
bank is part of a holding company. This is a good proposal and is the
right thing to do.

Thank you for considering my views.

Sincerely,

Gates Little
President
The Southern Bank Co.