In the first four months of the 114th Congress, 28 ABA-supported bills have been introduced, ABA bankers and staff have testified before Congress four times, the Federal Reserve finalized an ABA-advocated rule change helping smaller banks and ABA Chairman John Ikard participated in President Obama’s cybersecurity summit. These and other ABA advocacy initiatives, part of ABA’s Agenda for America’s Hometown Banks, are included in ABA’s latest members-only Action Update.
The Action Update shows that eight Agenda bills have passed the House this term, in addition to the renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which President Obama signed into law in January. ABA and state association grassroots advocacy has helped to secure bipartisan co-sponsors for most of the newly introduced legislation, which covers regulatory relief, exam fairness, data security, mutual banks, mortgage lending and more.
To help spur regulatory relief movement in the Senate, ABA collected — at the request of Senate Banking Committee leaders — hundreds of comments from bankers on specific laws and regulations that hinder them from serving their customers.
On the regulatory front, the Fed finalized a rule raising the asset threshold for small bank and S&L holding company regulatory relief from $500 million to $1 billion, the SEC proposed correcting a disparity between bank holding companies and S&L holding companies and the CFPB proposed ABA-supported relief for small mortgage creditors and those in rural areas.
