The Federal Reserve will try to make it clearer whether new banking rules apply to small lenders, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in remarks on Wednesday.

Bernanke said the goal is to prevent community banks from wasting time and money trying to figure out if a new regulation applies to them.

Although this change seems relatively simple, we hope it will help banks avoid allocating precious resources to poring over supervisory guidance that does not apply to them, Bernanke said in a video message to an Independent Community Bankers of America conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Bernanke told the group that the outlook for small banks is improving but that the economy continues to pose challenges for the industry.

Despite some recent signs of improvement, the recovery has been frustratingly slow, constraining opportunities for profitable lending, Bernanke said.

(Reporting By Dave Clarke; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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