I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 987
To amend certain banking laws to prohibit certain financial service providers
who deny fair access to financial services from using taxpayer funded
discount window lending programs, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY5, 2025
Mr. B
ARR(for himself, Mr. MEUSER, Mr. SCOTTFRANKLINof Florida, Mr.
C
LYDE, and Mr. HARRIGAN) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To amend certain banking laws to prohibit certain financial
service providers who deny fair access to financial serv-
ices from using taxpayer funded discount window lending
programs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair Access to Bank-4
ing Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds that— 7
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(1) article I of the Constitution of the United 1
States guarantees the people of the United States 2
the right to enact public policy through the free and 3
fair election of representatives and through the ac-4
tions of State legislatures and Congress; 5
(2) financial institutions rightly objected to the 6
Operation Choke Point initiative through which cer-7
tain government agencies pressured financial institu-8
tions to cut off access to financial services to lawful 9
sectors of the economy; 10
(3) in response to pressure from advocates 11
whose policy objectives are served when financial in-12
stitutions deny certain customers access to financial 13
services, financial institutions are now, however, in-14
creasingly employing subjective, category-based eval-15
uations to deny certain persons access to financial 16
services; 17
(4) this privatization of the discriminatory prac-18
tices underlying Operation Choke Point by financial 19
institutions represents as great a threat to the na-20
tional economy, national security, and the soundness 21
of banking and financial markets in the United 22
States as Operation Choke Point itself; 23
(5) financial institutions are supported by the 24
United States taxpayers and enjoy significant privi-25
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leges in the financial system of the United States 1
and should not be permitted to act as de facto regu-2
lators or unelected legislators by withholding finan-3
cial services to otherwise credit worthy businesses 4
based on subjective political reasons, bias or preju-5
dices; 6
(6) financial institutions are not well-equipped 7
to balance risks unrelated to financial exposures and 8
the operations required to deliver financial services; 9
(7) the United States taxpayers came to the aid 10
for large financial institutions during the great re-11
cession of 2008 because they were deemed too im-12
portant to the national economy to be permitted to 13
fail; 14
(8) when a financial institution predicates the 15
access to financial services of a person on factors or 16
information (such as the lawful products a customer 17
manufactures or sells or the services the customer 18
provides) other than quantitative, impartial risk- 19
based standards, the financial institution has failed 20
to act consistent with basic principles of sound risk 21
management and failed to provide fair access to fi-22
nancial services; 23
(9) financial institutions have a responsibility to 24
make decisions about whether to provide a person 25
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with financial services on the basis of impartial cri-1
teria free from prejudice or favoritism; 2
(10) while fair access to financial services does 3
not obligate a financial institution to offer any par-4
ticular financial service to the public, or to operate 5
in any particular geographic area, or to provide a 6
service the financial institution offers to any par-7
ticular person, it is necessary that— 8
(A) the financial services a financial insti-9
tution chooses to offer in the geographic areas 10
in which the financial institution operates be 11
made available to all customers based on the 12
quantitative, impartial risk-based standards of 13
the financial institution, and not based on 14
whether the customer is in a particular category 15
of customers; 16
(B) financial institutions assess the risks 17
posed by individual customers on a case-by-case 18
basis, rather than category-based assessment; 19
and 20
(C) financial institutions implement con-21
trols to manage relationships commensurate 22
with these risks associated with each customer, 23
not a strategy of total avoidance of particular 24
industries or categories of customers; 25
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(11) financial institutions are free to provide or 1
deny financial services to any individual customer, 2
but first, the financial institutions must rely on em-3
pirical data that are evaluated consistent with the 4
established, impartial risk-management standards of 5
the financial institution; and 6
(12) anything less is not prudent risk manage-7
ment and may result in unsafe or unsound practices, 8
denial of fair access to financial services, cancelling, 9
or eliminating certain businesses in society, and have 10
a deleterious effect on national security and the na-11
tional economy. 12
SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 13
The purposes of this Act are to— 14
(1) ensure fair access to financial services and 15
fair treatment of customers by financial service pro-16
viders, including national and State banks, Federal 17
savings associations, and State and Federal credit 18
unions; 19
(2) ensure financial institutions conduct them-20
selves in a safe and sound manner, comply with laws 21
and regulations, treat their customers fairly, and 22
provide fair access to financial services; 23
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(3) protect against financial institutions being 1
able to impede otherwise lawful commerce and there-2
by achieve certain public policy goals; 3
(4) ensure that persons involved in politically 4
unpopular businesses but that are lawful under Fed-5
eral law receive fair access to financial services 6
under the law; and 7
(5) ensure financial institutions operate in a 8
safe and sound manner by making judgments and 9
decisions about whether to provide a customer with 10
financial services on an impartial, individualized 11
risk-based analysis using empirical data evaluated 12
under quantifiable standards. 13
SEC. 4. ADVANCES TO INDIVIDUAL MEMBER BANKS. 14
(a) M
EMBERBANKS.—Section 10B of the Federal 15
Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 347b) is amended by adding at 16
the end the following: 17
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ONUSE OFDISCOUNTWINDOW 18
L
ENDINGPROGRAMS.—No member bank with more than 19
$50,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets, or sub-20
sidiary of the member bank, may use a discount window 21
lending program if the member bank or subsidiary refuses 22
to do business with any person who is in compliance with 23
the law, including section 8 of the Fair Access to Banking 24
Act.’’. 25
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(b) INSUREDDEPOSITORYINSTITUTIONS.—Section 1
8(a)(2)(A) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 2
U.S.C. 1818(a)(2)(A)) is amended— 3
(1) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end; 4
(2) in clause (iii), by striking the comma at the 5
end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 6
(3) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(iv) an insured depository institution 8
with more than $500,000,000,000 in total 9
consolidated assets, or subsidiary of the in-10
sured depository institution, that refuses to 11
do business with any person who is in com-12
pliance with the law, including section 8 of 13
the Fair Access to Banking Act.’’. 14
(c) N
ONMEMBER BANKS, TRUSTCOMPANIES, AND 15
O
THERDEPOSITORYINSTITUTIONS.—Section 13 of the 16
Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 342) is amended by in-17
serting ‘‘Provided further, That no such nonmember bank 18
or trust company or other depository institution with more 19
than $50,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets, or sub-20
sidiary of such nonmember bank or trust company or 21
other depository institution, may refuse to do business 22
with any person who is in compliance with the law, includ-23
ing, including section 8 of the Fair Access to Banking 24
Act:’’ after ‘‘appropriate:’’. 25
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SEC. 5. PAYMENT CARD NETWORKS. 1
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘payment 2
card network’’ has the meaning given the term in section 3
921(c) of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 4
1693o–2(c)). 5
(b) P
ROHIBITION.—No payment card network, in-6
cluding a subsidiary of a payment card network, may, di-7
rectly or through any agent, processor, or licensed member 8
of the network, by contract, requirement, condition, pen-9
alty, or otherwise, prohibit or inhibit the ability of any per-10
son who is in compliance with the law, including section 11
8 of this Act, to obtain access to services or products of 12
the payment card network because of political or 13
reputational risk considerations. 14
(c) C
IVILPENALTY.—Any payment card network 15
that violates subsection (b) shall be assessed a civil penalty 16
by the Comptroller of the Currency of not more than 10 17
percent of the value of the services or products described 18
in that subsection, not to exceed $10,000 per violation. 19
SEC. 6. CREDIT UNIONS. 20
Section 206(b)(1) of the Federal Credit Union Act 21
(12 U.S.C. 1786) is amended by inserting ‘‘or is refusing 22
or has refused, or has a subsidiary that is refusing or has 23
refused, to do business with any person who is in compli-24
ance with the law, including section 8 of the Fair Access 25
to Banking Act,’’ after ‘‘as an insured credit union,’’. 26
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SEC. 7. USE OF AUTOMATED CLEARING HOUSE NETWORK. 1
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 2
(1) C
OVERED CREDIT UNION .—The term ‘‘cov-3
ered credit union’’ means— 4
(A) any insured credit union, as defined in 5
section 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act 6
(12 U.S.C. 1752); or 7
(B) any credit union that is eligible to 8
make application to become an insured credit 9
union under section 201 of the Federal Credit 10
Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1781). 11
(2) M
EMBER BANK.—The term ‘‘member bank’’ 12
has the meaning given the term in the third undesig-13
nated paragraph of the first section of the Federal 14
Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 221). 15
(b) P
ROHIBITION.—No covered credit union, member 16
bank, or State-chartered non-member bank with more 17
than $50,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets, or a 18
subsidiary of the covered credit union, member bank, or 19
State-chartered non-member bank, may use the Auto-20
mated Clearing House Network if that member bank, 21
credit union, or subsidiary of the member bank or credit 22
union, refuses to do business with any person who is in 23
compliance with the law, including section 8 of this Act. 24
SEC. 8. FAIR ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES. 25
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 26
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(1) BANK.—The term ‘‘bank’’— 1
(A) means an entity for which the Office 2
of the Comptroller of the Currency is the appro-3
priate Federal banking agency, as defined in 4
section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act 5
(12 U.S.C. 1813); and 6
(B) includes— 7
(i) member banks; 8
(ii) non-member banks; 9
(iii) covered credit unions; 10
(iv) State-chartered non-member 11
banks; and 12
(v) trust companies. 13
(2) C
OVERED BANK.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 15
bank’’ means a bank that has the ability to— 16
(i) raise the price a person has to pay 17
to obtain an offered financial service from 18
the bank or from a competitor; or 19
(ii) significantly impede a person, or 20
the business activities of a person, in favor 21
of or to the advantage of another person. 22
(B) P
RESUMPTION.— 23
(i) I
N GENERAL.—A bank shall not be 24
presumed to be a covered bank if the bank 25
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has less than $50,000,000,000 in total as-1
sets. 2
(ii) R
EBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION .— 3
(I) I
N GENERAL.—A bank is pre-4
sumed to be a covered bank if the 5
bank has $50,000,000,000 or more in 6
total assets. 7
(II) R
EBUTTAL.—A bank that 8
meets the criteria under subclause (I) 9
can seek to rebut this presumption by 10
submitting to the Office of the Comp-11
troller of the Currency written mate-12
rials that, in the judgement of the 13
agency, demonstrate the bank does 14
not meet the definition of covered 15
bank. 16
(3) C
OVERED CREDIT UNION .—The term ‘‘cov-17
ered credit union’’ means— 18
(A) any insured credit union, as defined in 19
section 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act 20
(12 U.S.C. 1752); or 21
(B) any credit union that is eligible to 22
make application to become an insured credit 23
union under section 201 of the Federal Credit 24
Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1781). 25
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(4) DENY.—The term ‘‘deny’’ means to deny or 1
refuse to enter into or terminate an existing finan-2
cial services relationship with a person. 3
(5) F
AIR ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES .— 4
The term ‘‘fair access to financial services’’ means 5
persons engaged in activities lawful under Federal 6
law are able to obtain financial services at banks 7
without impediments caused by a prejudice against 8
or dislike for a person or the business of the cus-9
tomer, products or services sold by the person, or fa-10
voritism for market alternatives to the business of 11
the person. Refusing to provide or continue to pro-12
vide financial services to a person because the per-13
son engaged in rude or harassing conduct toward an 14
employee of a bank is not a violation of this section. 15
(6) F
INANCIAL SERVICE.—The term ‘‘financial 16
service’’ means a financial product or service, includ-17
ing— 18
(A) commercial and merchant banking; 19
(B) lending; 20
(C) financing; 21
(D) leasing; 22
(E) cash, asset and investment manage-23
ment and advisory services; 24
(F) credit card services; 25
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(G) payment processing; 1
(H) security and foreign exchange trading 2
and brokerage services; and 3
(I) insurance products. 4
(7) M
EMBER BANK.—The term ‘‘member bank’’ 5
has the meaning given the term in the third undesig-6
nated paragraph of the first section of the Federal 7
Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 221). 8
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To provide fair access to fi-10
nancial services, a covered bank (including a sub-11
sidiary of a covered bank), except as necessary to 12
comply with another provision of law— 13
(A) shall make each financial service it of-14
fers available to all persons in the geographic 15
market served by the covered bank on propor-16
tionally equal terms; 17
(B) may not deny any person a financial 18
service the covered bank offers unless the denial 19
is justified by such quantified and documented 20
failure of the person to meet quantitative, im-21
partial risk-based standards established in ad-22
vance by the covered bank; 23
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(C) may not deny, in coordination with or 1
at the request of others, any person a financial 2
service the covered bank offers; and 3
(D) shall, when denying any person finan-4
cial services the covered bank offers, provide 5
written justification to the person explaining 6
the basis for the denial, including any specific 7
laws or regulations the covered bank believes 8
are being violated by the person or customer, if 9
any. 10
(2) J
USTIFICATION REQUIREMENT .—A jus-11
tification described in paragraph (1)(D) may not be 12
based solely on the reputational risk to the covered 13
bank. 14
(c) C
AUSE OFACTION FORVIOLATIONS OFTHIS 15
S
ECTION.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 17
provision of law, a person may commence a civil ac-18
tion in the appropriate district court of the United 19
States against any covered bank that violates or fails 20
to comply with the requirements under this Act, for 21
harm that person suffered as a result of such viola-22
tion. 23
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(2) NO EXHAUSTION.—It shall not be necessary 1
for a person to exhaust its administrative remedies 2
before commencing a civil action under this Act. 3
(3) D
AMAGES.—If a person prevails in a civil 4
action under this Act, a court shall award the per-5
son— 6
(A) reasonable attorney’s fees and costs; 7
and 8
(B) treble damages. 9
Æ
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