Introduction of the Protecting Consumers From Market Manipulation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I am proud to introduce the Protecting Consumers from Market Manipulation Act, which guards against market manipulation in a range of industries by strengthening the separation of banking and commerce.

For decades, federal banking regulation has established a separation between banking and commerce. This longstanding doctrine--a fundamental underpinning of the Bank Holding Company Act (BHCA)--is spurred by the belief that banks should not use their leverage as financial actors to game economic outcomes. Under the doctrine, banks may facilitate business through the extension and underwriting of loans, etc., but not through direct production or sale of goods. Commercial entities were purposefully walled off from the definition of banking in order to avoid conflicts of interests between the actors and operators of markets.

Now is a crucial moment to strengthen the separation between banking and commerce, with tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Uber moving swiftly into financial services. We know we can't trust big monopolies with our financial information. The potential for collusion and manipulation of outcomes is just too great. This bill will keep tech companies and other large non-financial companies from deriving more than 5 percent of their annual revenue from banking activity.

This bill also shores up the banking/commerce separation by limiting commodities ownership by commercial banks. When the lines between banking and commerce are blurred, monopolization and concentration are usually the result. Working people suffer the consequences, whether it's Big Tech undermining small businesses or big banks gouging consumers by manipulating the price of oil, aluminum, and electricity. We must protect consumers from big banks and big tech--and separate banking and commerce.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

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