II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 401
To amend the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit certain financial service pro-
viders who deny fair access to financial services from using taxpayer
funded discount window lending programs, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Mr. C
RAMER(for himself, Mr. BANKS, Mr. BARRASSO, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr.
B
OOZMAN, Mrs. BRITT, Mr. BUDD, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr. COR-
NYN, Mr. COTTON, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. DAINES, Ms.
E
RNST, Mrs. FISCHER, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. HOEVEN, Mrs.
H
YDE-SMITH, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. JUSTICE, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr.
L
ANKFORD, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. MCCORMICK, Mr. MORAN,
Mr. M
ORENO, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. RICKETTS, Mr. RISCH, Mr. SCHMITT,
Mr. S
COTTof Florida, Mr. SCOTTof South Carolina, Mr. SHEEHY, Mr.
S
ULLIVAN, Mr. TILLIS, Mr. TUBERVILLE, and Mr. WICKER) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL
To amend the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit certain finan-
cial service providers who deny fair access to financial
services 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
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair Access to Bank-2
ing Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds that— 5
(1) article I of the Constitution of the United 6
States guarantees the people of the United States 7
the right to enact public policy through the free and 8
fair election of representatives and through the ac-9
tions of State legislatures and Congress; 10
(2) banks rightly objected to the Operation 11
Choke Point initiative through which certain govern-12
ment agencies pressured banks to cut off access to 13
financial services to lawful sectors of the economy; 14
(3) banks are now, however, increasingly em-15
ploying subjective, category-based evaluations to 16
deny certain persons access to financial services in 17
response to pressure from advocates from across the 18
political spectrum whose policy objectives are served 19
when banks deny certain customers access to finan-20
cial services; 21
(4) the privatization of the discriminatory prac-22
tices underlying Operation Choke Point by banks 23
represents as great a threat to the national economy, 24
national security, and the soundness of banking and 25
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•S 401 IS
financial markets in the United States as Operation 1
Choke Point itself; 2
(5) banks are supported by the United States 3
taxpayers and enjoy significant privileges in the fi-4
nancial system of the United States and should not 5
be permitted to act as de facto regulators or 6
unelected legislators by withholding financial services 7
to otherwise credit worthy businesses based on sub-8
jective political reasons, bias, or prejudices; 9
(6) banks are not well-equipped to balance risks 10
unrelated to financial exposures and the operations 11
required to deliver financial services; 12
(7) the United States taxpayers came to the aid 13
for large banks during the Great Recession of 2008 14
because they were deemed too important to the na-15
tional economy to be permitted to fail; 16
(8) when a bank predicates the access to finan-17
cial services of a person on factors or information 18
(such as the lawful products a customer manufac-19
tures or sells or the services the customer provides) 20
other than quantitative, impartial risk-based stand-21
ards, the bank has failed to act consistent with basic 22
principles of sound risk management and failed to 23
provide fair access to financial services; 24
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(9) banks have a responsibility to make deci-1
sions about whether to provide a person with finan-2
cial services on the basis of impartial criteria free 3
from prejudice or favoritism; 4
(10) while fair access to financial services does 5
not obligate a bank to offer any particular financial 6
service to the public, to operate in any particular ge-7
ographic area, or to provide a service the bank offers 8
to any particular person, it is necessary that— 9
(A) the financial services a bank chooses to 10
offer in the geographic areas in which the bank 11
operates be made available to all customers 12
based on the quantitative, impartial risk-based 13
standards of the bank, and not based on wheth-14
er the customer is in a particular category of 15
customers; 16
(B) banks assess the risks posed by indi-17
vidual customers on a case-by-case basis, rather 18
than category-based assessment; and 19
(C) banks implement controls to manage 20
relationships commensurate with these risks as-21
sociated with each customer, not a strategy of 22
total avoidance of particular industries or cat-23
egories of customers; 24
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(11) banks are free to provide or deny financial 1
services to any individual customer, but first, the 2
banks must rely on empirical data that are evaluated 3
consistent with the established, impartial risk-man-4
agement standards of the bank; and 5
(12) anything less is not prudent risk manage-6
ment and may result in unsafe or unsound practices, 7
denial of fair access to financial services, cancelling, 8
or eliminating certain businesses in society, and have 9
a deleterious effect on national security and the na-10
tional economy. 11
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 12
The purposes of this Act are to— 13
(1) ensure fair access to financial services and 14
fair treatment of customers by financial service pro-15
viders, including national and State banks, Federal 16
savings associations, and State and Federal credit 17
unions; 18
(2) ensure banks conduct themselves in a safe 19
and sound manner, comply with laws and regula-20
tions, treat their customers fairly, and provide fair 21
access to financial services; 22
(3) protect against banks being able to impede 23
otherwise lawful commerce and thereby achieving 24
certain public policy goals; 25
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(4) ensure that persons involved in politically 1
unpopular businesses but that are lawful under Fed-2
eral law receive fair access to financial services 3
under the law; and 4
(5) ensure banks operate in a safe and sound 5
manner by making judgments and decisions about 6
whether to provide a customer with financial services 7
on an impartial, individualized risk-based analysis 8
using empirical data evaluated under quantifiable 9
standards. 10
SEC. 4. ADVANCES TO INDIVIDUAL MEMBER BANKS. 11
(a) M
EMBERBANKS.—Section 10B of the Federal 12
Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 347b) is amended by adding at 13
the end the following: 14
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ONUSE OFDISCOUNTWINDOW 15
L
ENDINGPROGRAMS.—No member bank with more than 16
$10,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets, or sub-17
sidiary of the member bank, may use a discount window 18
lending program if the member bank or subsidiary refuses 19
to do business with any person who is in compliance with 20
the law, including section 8 of the Fair Access to Banking 21
Act.’’. 22
(b) I
NSUREDDEPOSITORYINSTITUTIONS.—Section 23
8(a)(2)(A) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 24
U.S.C. 1818(a)(2)(A)) is amended— 25
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(1) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end; 1
(2) in clause (iii), by striking the comma at the 2
end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 3
(3) by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(iv) an insured depository institution 5
with more than $10,000,000,000 in total 6
consolidated assets, or subsidiary of the in-7
sured depository institution, that refuses to 8
do business with any person who is in com-9
pliance with the law, including section 8 of 10
the Fair Access to Banking Act,’’. 11
(c) N
ONMEMBER BANKS, TRUSTCOMPANIES, AND 12
O
THERDEPOSITORYINSTITUTIONS.—Section 13 of the 13
Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 342) is amended by in-14
serting ‘‘Provided further, That no such nonmember bank 15
or trust company or other depository institution with more 16
than $10,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets, or sub-17
sidiary of such nonmember bank or trust company or 18
other depository institution, may refuse to do business 19
with any person who is in compliance with the law, includ-20
ing , including section 8 of the Fair Access to Banking 21
Act:’’ after ‘‘appropriate:’’. 22
SEC. 5. PAYMENT CARD NETWORK. 23
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘payment 24
card network’’ has the meaning given the term in section 25
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921(c) of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1
1693o–2(c)). 2
(b) P
ROHIBITION.—No payment card network, in-3
cluding a subsidiary of a payment card network, may, di-4
rectly or through any agent, processor, or licensed member 5
of the network, by contract, requirement, condition, pen-6
alty, or otherwise, prohibit or inhibit the ability of any per-7
son who is in compliance with the law, including section 8
8 of this Act, to obtain access to services or products of 9
the payment card network because of political or 10
reputational risk considerations. 11
(c) C
IVILPENALTY.—Any payment card network 12
that violates subsection (b) shall be assessed a civil penalty 13
by the Comptroller of the Currency of not more than 10 14
percent of the value of the services or products described 15
in that subsection, not to exceed $10,000 per violation. 16
SEC. 6. CREDIT UNIONS. 17
Section 206(b)(1) of the Federal Credit Union Act 18
(12 U.S.C. 1786) is amended by inserting ‘‘or is refusing 19
or has refused, or has a subsidiary that is refusing or has 20
refused, to do business with any person who is in compli-21
ance with the law, including section 8 of the Fair Access 22
to Banking Act,’’ after ‘‘as an insured credit union,’’. 23
SEC. 7. USE OF AUTOMATED CLEARING HOUSE NETWORK. 24
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25
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(1) COVERED CREDIT UNION .—The term ‘‘cov-1
ered credit union’’ means— 2
(A) any insured credit union, as defined in 3
section 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act 4
(12 U.S.C. 1752); or 5
(B) any credit union that is eligible to 6
make application to become an insured credit 7
union under section 201 of the Federal Credit 8
Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1781). 9
(2) M
EMBER BANK.—The term ‘‘member bank’’ 10
has the meaning given the term in the third undesig-11
nated paragraph of the first section of the Federal 12
Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 221). 13
(b) P
ROHIBITION.—No covered credit union, member 14
bank, or State-chartered non-member bank with more 15
than $10,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets, or a 16
subsidiary of the covered credit union, member bank, or 17
State-chartered non-member bank, may use the Auto-18
mated Clearing House Network if that member bank, 19
credit union, or subsidiary of the member bank or credit 20
union, refuses to do business with any person who is in 21
compliance with the law, including section 8 of this Act. 22
SEC. 8. FAIR ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES. 23
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 24
(1) B
ANK.—The term ‘‘bank’’— 25
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(A) means an entity for which the Office 1
of the Comptroller of the Currency is the appro-2
priate Federal banking agency, as defined in 3
section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act 4
(12 U.S.C. 1813); and 5
(B) includes— 6
(i) member banks; 7
(ii) non-member banks; 8
(iii) covered credit unions; 9
(iv) State-chartered non-member 10
banks; and 11
(v) trust companies. 12
(2) C
OVERED BANK.— 13
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 14
bank’’ means a bank that has the ability to— 15
(i) raise the price a person has to pay 16
to obtain an offered financial service from 17
the bank or from a competitor; or 18
(ii) significantly impede a person, or 19
the business activities of a person, in favor 20
of or to the advantage of another person. 21
(B) P
RESUMPTION.— 22
(i) I
N GENERAL.—A bank shall not be 23
presumed to be a covered bank if the bank 24
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has less than $10,000,000,000 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 $10,000,000,000 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. 12
(6) F
INANCIAL SERVICE.—The term ‘‘financial 13
service’’ means a financial product or service, includ-14
ing— 15
(A) commercial and merchant banking; 16
(B) lending; 17
(C) financing; 18
(D) leasing; 19
(E) cash, asset, and investment manage-20
ment and advisory services; 21
(F) credit card services; 22
(G) payment processing; 23
(H) security and foreign exchange trading 24
and brokerage services; and 25
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(I) insurance products. 1
(7) M
EMBER BANK.—The term ‘‘member bank’’ 2
has the meaning given the term in the third undesig-3
nated paragraph of the first section of the Federal 4
Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 221). 5
(8) P
ERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’— 6
(A) means— 7
(i) any natural person; or 8
(ii) any partnership, corporation, or 9
other business or legal entity; and 10
(B) includes a customer. 11
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To provide fair access to fi-13
nancial services, a covered bank, including a sub-14
sidiary of a covered bank, shall, except as necessary 15
to comply with another provision of law— 16
(A) make each financial service the covered 17
bank offers available to all persons in the geo-18
graphic market served by the covered bank on 19
proportionally equal terms; 20
(B) not deny any person a financial service 21
the covered bank offers unless the denial is jus-22
tified by such quantified and documented fail-23
ure of the person to meet quantitative, impar-24
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tial risk-based standards established in advance 1
by the covered bank; 2
(C) not deny, in coordination with or at 3
the request of others, any person a financial 4
service the covered bank offers; and 5
(D) when denying any person financial 6
services the covered bank offers, provide written 7
justification to the person explaining the basis 8
for the denial, including any specific laws or 9
regulations the covered bank believes are being 10
violated by the person or customer. 11
(2) J
USTIFICATION REQUIREMENT .—A jus-12
tification described in paragraph (1)(D) may not be 13
based solely on the reputational risk to the covered 14
bank. 15
(c) C
AUSE OFACTION FORVIOLATIONS OFTHIS 16
S
ECTION.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 18
provision of law, a person may commence a civil ac-19
tion in the appropriate district court of the United 20
States against any covered bank or covered credit 21
union that violates or fails to comply with the re-22
quirements under this section, for harm that person 23
suffered as a result of such violation. 24
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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 section. 3
(3) D
AMAGES.—If a person prevails in a civil 4
action under this section, a court shall award the 5
person— 6
(A) reasonable attorney’s fees and costs; 7
and 8
(B) treble damages. 9
Æ
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