releases: https://welch.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lankford-welch-introduce-bipartisan-bill-help-community-financial
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://welch.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lankford-welch-introduce-bipartisan-bill-help-community-financial | Reps. Lankford, Welch Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Help Community Financial Institutions | 2014-12-04 | 2014 | 2014-12 | Democrat | House | VT | Peter Welch | W000800 | welch.house.gov | legacy | Representative James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today proudly introduced H.R. 5786, the Small Financial Institutions Regulatory Relief Act of 2014. These simple, bipartisan reforms to certain Dodd-Frank regulations will provide much-needed relief for community financial institutions, who are sometimes the only accessto banking services in rural areas. I am proud to introduce this bipartisan bill that takes a first step to give our community financial institutions relief from some of Dodd-Frank's most onerous provisions, said Lankford. Community banks and credit unions know their customers personally because they live and work in their communities. They know the financial goals and obstacles their neighbors face and can offer the most personalized solutions, but new federal regulations prevent them from providing options to their customers. While we may differ in our overall approach and on the value of Dodd-Frank,Rep. Welch and I are happy to take steps in areas where we have common ground to ease the federal regulations preventing our community financial institutions from fully serving their customers. Community banks are in the business of lending money to the real economy by providing much-needed loans to American small businesses and families, said Rep. Welch. They do not engage in the casino-style financial trading that plunged the American economy into a deep recession and that Dodd-Frank was designed to prevent. I am proud to join with Rep. Lankford to introduce this bipartisan legislation that will provide common-sense regulatory relief to our community banks to allow them to better serve Main Street, concluded Welch. I look forward to consideration of this bill and welcome any opportunities to provide a reprieve from burdensome federal regulations to our community financial institutions, concluded Lankford. The bill: Provides qualified mortgage safe harbor status for loans originated and held in portfolio for the life of the loan by banks with less than $10 billion in assets, including balloon mortgages. This addresses the ability to repay rule recently implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which significantly increased the risk of litigation and regulatory burden on small financial institutions access to credit for families and businesses. Exempts banks with assets below $10 billion from escrow requirements for loans held in portfolio. Current escrow requirements under Dodd-Frank make it too expensive and cumbersome for small financial institutions to originate loans for certain consumers. This provision would direct the CFPB to provide exemptions or adjustments for servicers of 10,000 mortgage loans or fewer from Section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Section 6 of RESPA requires the disclosure to applicants relating to assignment, sale, or transfer of loan servicing. Eliminates the requirement under Dodd-Frank that financial institutions mail annual privacy notices even when no change in policy has occurred. Financial institutions would still be required to notify their customers when they change their privacy policies. Raises the threshold under the Small Bank Holding Policy Statement (12 CFR 225, appendix C) from $500 million to $5 billion with the goal of easing capital requirements for small bank and thrift holding companies and allow them to downstream more capital to their banking subsidiaries. Requires that the Federal Reserve Board shall at all times have one member with experience working in or supervising community banks having less than $10 billion in assets. Would re-work the way the CFBP determines a bank to be in a rural or underserved area. The CFPB's Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule allows balloon loans made by small creditors that operate predominantly in rural or underserved areas to be qualified mortgages. The CFPB's regulatory definition of rural designates entire counties as either rural or non-rural, which can be too narrow. To view a copy of the bill, please click here. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |