Community Bank Reporting Relief Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4725) to amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to require short form call reports for certain depository institutions.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows H.R. 4725

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Community Bank Reporting Relief Act''. SEC. 2. SHORT FORM CALL REPORTS.

Section 7(a) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1817(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``(12) Short form reporting.--

``(A) In general.--The appropriate Federal banking agencies shall issue regulations that allow for a reduced reporting requirement for a covered depository institution when the institution makes the first and third report of condition for a year, as required under paragraph (3).

``(B) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term `covered depository institution' means an insured depository institution that--

``(i) has less than $5,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets; and

``(ii) satisfies such other criteria as the appropriate Federal banking agencies determine appropriate.''.

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Mr. BARR. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise today in support of H.R. 4725, the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act.

Community banks were hit hard by the Great Recession and the ensuing regulations. Numerous bankers have told me they are spending more and more money and resources and time on compliance costs and less money and resources on actually providing services to customers. This is particularly alarming because these small banks are so critical to their communities. From sponsoring the local T-ball team, to lending money to a farmer for the next year's crop, to helping the single mom purchase a used car so she can get to work, these banks are involved at every level of our communities all across America, but because of overregulation, these banks are rapidly closing and consolidating.

Unfortunately, the headline for banks in the Commonwealth of Kentucky is no different. Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank financial control law, we have seen a 20 percent drop in the number of banks in our State and there has been a dearth of charters for new banks. In fact, since 2010, there have been only a few de novo charters for banks nationwide.

Now, some people say that consolidation and mergers have been a long- term trend for the last 30 years and, therefore, not related to the recent uptick in regulations unrelated to Dodd-Frank, but they are clearly not seeing the bigger picture, because even after mergers, many branches in rural and other underserved communities are closing, leaving many Kentuckians to drive a town or two over just to get to the nearest bank.

It is not just about a long-term trend of consolidation. There have been literally no new charters, whereas before the Dodd-Frank law was enacted, there were many, many new charters every year; and since the Dodd-Frank law was enacted, no new charters. So the consolidation trend has gotten a lot worse since this avalanche of red tape coming out of Washington, D.C., and that is having a very negative impact on rural and underserved American communities.

While new technologies are helping bring banking services to anyone with an internet connection, many people still prefer the personal one- on-one banking style that they grew up with and the personal interaction often that helps the banks themselves understand the exact needs of their customers.

The Dodd-Frank law was almost 2,300 pages and required dozens of agencies to create new regulations or revise existing ones. As a result, these agencies issued hundreds of regulations and, according to the Mercatus Center, the law placed about 28,000 new restrictions on the banking industry, effectively doubling the number of regulatory restrictions in title 12 of the Code of Federal Regulation to more than 52,000.

Although not part of the Dodd-Frank rush of regulations, a growing number of banks have cited the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's, or FFIEC, Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income--or call reports, as they are commonly called--as too burdensome.

Each quarter, all national banks, State member banks, insured State nonmember banks, and savings associations are required to file these call reports. The reports contain approximately 50 pages of financial data on each bank, including their assets, liabilities, capital accounts, expenses, and income. However, these reports are very burdensome for community banks with limited resources and offer little value to the regulators relative to the last quarter's report.

Thankfully, H.R. 4725, the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act, is fighting back against the bureaucratic nightmare of complying with these 52,000 restrictions by allowing banks with less than $5 billion in consolidated assets to file their call reports every 6 months as opposed to every 3 months.

The impact of this regulatory change will be a huge development for banks across the country. Now they will spend less time on call reports and more time on actually helping customers. This means more capital will be flowing into our local economies, spurring job growth and economic development, while making a real difference in the lives of Americans trying to access affordable capital to buy a new home or car or start a business.

I want to thank my good friend from Illinois, Congressman Randy Hultgren, for his leadership and for introducing this important legislation. Due to his leadership, this great community bank bill is being considered as a suspension on the floor today. That means that there is a great chance that this bill will build on its unanimous support earned during the House Financial Services Committee markup and will be a bipartisan provision in the Senate Banking chairman's Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which is expected to pass out of the Senate very soon.

In addition to Congressman Hultgren, I want to thank Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters for their hard work on this critical legislation, and I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 4725, the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act.

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hultgren), the sponsor of the legislation and the vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investments.

Let me once again thank the gentleman from Illinois for his tireless advocacy on behalf of our community financial institutions and providing some commonsense, basic relief to those institutions so that, instead of dealing with paperwork, they could actually better serve their customers and grow our local economies. General Leave
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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker,

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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