Montana banking regulator outlines oversight priorities, backs action on "trigger leads"

Melanie Hall, commissioner of the Division of Banking and Financial Institutions, told the Section A Appropriations Subcommittee that the division has no legislative or budget requests for the 2027 biennium and draws all of its funding from assessments on the firms it supervises.

Hall said the division charters, licenses and examines Montana banks, credit unions, mortgage brokers, loan originators, escrow companies and other consumer finance firms and provides a consumer-complaint process that works with the attorney general's office and the insurance commissioner. "We do not get any revenue from the general fund; it is all state special revenue," she said.

The division supervises 34 state‑chartered banks and 10 state‑chartered credit unions with combined assets of about $80 billion; it licenses roughly 5,000 individuals and issues about 800 company licenses annually. Hall described the division's funding mix as about 58% from…