Banking Legislation in the 118th Congress

Banking Legislation in the 118th Congress

INSIGHTi

Banking Legislation in the 118th Congress
June 13, 2024
This Insight outlines the banking and credit union bills that have seen committee or floor action in the
118th Congress and provides links to other CRS resources. It does not cover bills that indirectly affect
banks, such as bills that affect the treatment of certain loans made by banks and nonbank financial
institutions.
Bills That Passed the House or Senate
H.R. 582 passed the House on January 30, 2023. Under the bill, new or poorly rated credit unions would
need to hold monthly board meetings, whereas established healthy credit unions would need to hold six
meetings a year, with one in each fiscal quarter. (Currently, monthly meetings are required for all credit
unions.) See CRS In Focus IF11713, Introduction to Financial Services: Credit Unions.
H.R. 4763, popularly known as FIT 21, passed the House on May 21, 2024. It would create a regulatory
framework for digital assets (e.g., cryptocurrencies) and would allow banks, credit unions, and other
financial firms to custody digital assets. See CRS Insight IN12223, An Overview of H.R. 4763, Financial
Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act.
H.J.Res. 109 was vetoed by the President on May 31, 2024. Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA),
H.J.Res. 109 would rescind the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121,
which requires crypto platform operators to include customer funds on their balance sheets. Banks
generally do not operate crypto platforms. However, banks that provide custody services to clients with
cryptocurrency may be affected. See CRS Insight IN12358, Potential Disapproval of SEC Staff
Accounting Bulletin No. 121 Under the Congressional Review Act.
S.J.Res. 32 was vetoed by the President. The Senate failed to override the veto on January 10, 2024.
Under the CRA, the resolution would have rescinded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s
(CFPB’s) rule implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (P.L. 111-203). The rule requires
covered financial institutions engaged in small business lending, including banks and credit unions, to
report on applications for credit. See CRS Report R47788, Section 1071: Small Business Lending Data
Collection and Reporting, coordinated by Darryl E. Getter.
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
IN12376
CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress

Congressional Research Service
2
Bills That Saw Committee Action
House Financial Services Committee
H.J.Res. 122 was ordered to be reported on April 17, 2024. Under the CRA, the resolution would rescind
the CFPB’s credit card late fee rule, which effectively lowers the late fee a credit card company can
charge to $8. For more information, see CRS Insight IN12146, CFPB Proposes New Credit Card Late
Fee Regulation.
H.J.Res. 124, H.J.Res. 125, and H.J.Res. 126 were ordered to be reported on April 17, 2024. Under the
CRA, the resolutions would rescind guidance issued by the banking regulators on banks’ climate-related
financial risk management. Click here for a CRS discussion of climate change and bank regulation.
H.R. 758 was ordered to be reported as an amendment in the nature of a substitute on May 16, 2024. It
would allow de novo (new) banks that meet certain criteria a three-year period to comply with the
Community Bank Leverage Ratio, a simplified elective capital standard for eligible banks with less than
$10 billion in assets. See CRS Report R45989, Community Bank Leverage Ratio (CBLR): Background
and Analysis of Bank Data.
H.R. 1165 was ordered to be reported as an amendment in the nature of a substitute on February 28, 2023.
The bill would amend data privacy requirements for financial institutions, expanding the application of
protections to the collection of information. See CRS Report R47434, Banking, Data Privacy, and
Cybersecurity Regulation.
H.R. 4206 was ordered to be reported as an amendment in the nature of a substitute on April 17, 2024.
For banks with over $100 billion in assets, the bill would increase a bank’s capital levels when it has
unrealized capital gains and reduce it when it has losses. This is similar to a requirement included in the
“Basel III Endgame” proposal. Unrealized losses played a role in the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in
2023. See CRS Insight IN12231, Banks’ Unrealized Losses, Part 1: New Treatment in the “Basel III
Endgame” Proposal.
H.R. 4766 was reported as amended on May 7, 2024. It would create a regulatory framework for payment
stablecoins (digital assets issued for payment and redeemable at a predetermined fixed amount), including
bank-issued stablecoins. See CRS Insight IN12249, An Overview of H.R. 4766, Clarity for Payment
Stablecoins Act.
H.R. 8337 was ordered to be reported as an amendment in the nature of a substitute on May 16, 2024. It
would, among other things, provide regulatory relief to banks by raising various exemption thresholds,
expediting merger decisions, and providing a more independent supervisory appeals process. It would
also require annual stress testing be subject to notice and comment rulemaking. See CRS In Focus
IF12678, Bank Resilience and Regulatory Improvement Act (H.R. 8337).
H.R. 8338 was ordered to be reported as an amendment in the nature of a substitute on May 16, 2024. It
would, among other things, provide a legal safe harbor to banks and credit unions that make qualifying
small-dollar loans, including certain installment loans and lines of credit. It also phases in the small
business lending reporting rule (see above) over five years. See CRS Report R44868, Short-Term, Small-
Dollar Lending: Policy Issues and Implications.
Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
S. 2190 was reported on June 22, 2023. It would allow bank regulators to recover bonus compensation
and profits from securities sales from senior executives who are responsible for the failure of a bank with
over $10 billion in assets. It would also require banks to create governance and accountability standards

Congressional Research Service
3
and raise the cap on civil penalties for related violations of law. For more information, see CRS Legal
Sidebar LSB10946, Silicon Valley Bank’s Failure and Potential Director/Officer Liability.
S. 2860 was reported as amended on September 28, 2023. It would provide safe harbor from supervisory
action by federal regulators for banks that provide services to state-sanctioned marijuana businesses. For
more information, see CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11076, Marijuana Banking: Legal Issues and the SAFE(R)
Banking Acts.

Author Information

Marc Labonte
Andrew P. Scott
Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy
Analyst in Financial Economics

Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However,
as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.

IN12376 · VERSION 1 · NEW