S-1484 : Still Just a Bill

Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015

This bill amends financial regulatory requirements under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994, the Truth in Lending Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA).

The size of financial entities subject to regulatory oversight (including the examination and reporting threshold required in the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, as well as the size of financial entities that may be exempt from clearing requirements under the Commodity Exchange Act [CEA] and the Securities Exchange Act [SEA]) shall be linked to changes in the gross domestic product.

Bank holding companies whose total consolidated assets exceed $500 billion are deemed systemically important under the bill, and the Financial Stability Oversight Council must consider and reevaluate annually the degree to which such companies are already regulated by the appropriate primary financial regulatory agency.

FDIA regulations governing the business of insurance shall now subject an insurance company that is a bank holding company and controls an insured depository institution to the same source-of-financial-strength requirements as govern bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies with respect to their subsidiaries that are depository institutions.

The Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and state insurance regulators must report annually to certain congressional committees regarding global insurance or international standard-setting regulatory or supervisory forums.

The Federal Open Market Committee must explain quarterly to certain congressional committees the basis for its policy decisions.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shall now be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The SEA shall apply its security registration requirements to a savings and loan holding company.

Indemnification requirements of the CEA and the SEA are repealed concerning confidential information that has been shared by derivatives clearing organizations and swap data repositories, as well as by security-based swap data repositories.

The Secondary Market Advisory Committee is established to advise the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and the Common Securitization Solutions, LLC, on decisions relating to the development of secondary mortgage market infrastructure.

Technical and conforming amendments are made to specified Acts cited in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act.