House Financial Services Committee Advances 15 Bills

The US House Financial Services Committee announced that it had advanced 15 bills, many of which would alter the regulatory framework for financial institutions. This group of bills also included a number of bills based upon certain sections of the omnibus Financial CHOICE Act passed by the US House of Representatives in July 2017, which may be indicative of the Financial Services Committee’s view regarding the likelihood of a comprehensive bill’s passage in the Senate. Some of the bills that were passed by the Financial Services Committee include:  the Community Financial Institution Exemption Act (H.R. 1264), which would exempt, with certain exceptions, all insured depository institutions or credit unions with less than $50 billion in consolidated assets from US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules and regulations; the Federal Savings Association Charter Flexibility Act of 2017 (H.R. 1426), which would give certain federal savings associations the same rights and privileges as national banks supervised by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; a pair of bills that amend the Truth in Lending Act (the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act (H.R. 2226) and the Housing Opportunities Made Easier Act (H.R. 2255)); the Financial Stability Oversight Council Improvement Act (H.R. 4061), which would require that the FSOC evaluate whether heightened prudential standards or other rules and regulations optimize risk mitigation when considering whether a financial institution should be supervised by the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the Alleviating Stress Test Burdens to Help Investors Act (H.R. 4566), which would exempt nonbank financial institutions from the requirements of stress testing, unless the institution is currently under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board, and also empowers the Federal Reserve Board to limit stress testing requirements for the nonbank financial institutions that it does supervise; the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act (H.R. 4607), which would require that each US federal financial regulator conduct a review every seven years of all rules and regulations promulgated by the respective agency since 2006 in order to tailor existing rules and regulations, or identify those that may be unnecessary or outdated; the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act (H.R. 4725), which would provide a reduced regulatory reporting requirement for certain depository institutions with consolidated assets of $5 billion or less; and the Small Bank Holding Company Relief Act (H.R. 4771), which would raise the threshold of the Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement from $1 to $3 billion.

View the FSC announcement and links to the full text of the bills.