The US House Financial Services Committee announced that it had approved 13 bills, several of which were focused on regulatory reform for financial institutions. Representative Jeb Hensarling noted in an accompanying press release that the Financial Services Committee remains committed to, among other things, reducing regulatory red tape that burdens and affects financial institutions. Among the bills that were advanced pertaining to financial institutions are: Legislation that would permit financial institutions, upon an individual’s request, to use a scan or other copy of an individual’s identification card for identification and antifraud purposes, but also requires that the institution delete the scanned copy after the institution has completed its review; a bill that would add the Treasury Secretary to the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, and require that the task force submit proposals for revision of anti-money laundering programs to specifically identify, address and prevent the use of the financial system to support human trafficking; a bill that would establish deadlines for the issuance of final examination reports by federal financial institution regulatory agencies and legislation which would require federal banking agencies to publish the rationale and a cost-benefit analysis when issuing a prudential regulation that is more onerous than corresponding international prudential standards (commonly referred to as “gold-plating”). In addition, a bill was advanced that would extend the prohibition against the sale of senior preferred shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned by the US Treasury without prior approval by Congress. This bill also provides a mechanism to suspend payments by these entities to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Trust Fund.

View the full text of the bills are available on the House Financial Services Committee website.