WASHINGTON – Today, the Financial Services Committee advanced 8 bills for future House consideration, including Congressman French Hill’s legislation, the Volcker Regulatory Harmonization Act. He issued the following statement:
“As a former community banker, I have dealt with countless regulatory inconsistencies across the federal banking agencies. The Volcker Rule has been one of the most indecipherable given this rule is over 930 pages long and names five different agencies as regulatory authorities. My common sense bill attempts to streamline the regulatory rule-making and enforcement process, and this simple fix will ease the regulatory burden for our community banks lending in our local economies. It also will improve liquidity in the stock and bond markets and contribute to better pricing and services important to all Arkansas families like home mortgages and credit cards.”
Background
The Volcker Rule Regulatory Harmonization Act. on H.R. 4790, would do the following:
1) Amends Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act to streamline the regulatory authority over the Volcker Rule by granting the Federal Reserve the exclusive rulemaking authority and providing the primary federal banking agency for a banking entity the sole examination and enforcement authority.
2) Excludes community banks with $10 billion or less in consolidated assets and minimal trading assets from the Volcker Rule Requirements. This provision is similar to Section 203 of S. 2155, “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act,” which passed the Senate on March 14, 2018.
