The rule to prevent termination of banking services is on hold until a permanent director of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency can review it; but a GOP senator seeks to advance the measure through legislation.
3/1/2021 14:00
A rule from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that would ensure large banks provide all customers fair access to their services could move forward under legislation from U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who seeks to codify the rule.
The Hill reports Cramer said he will introduce the legislation after the rule was put on hold until a permanent director of the OCC appointed by President Joe Biden could review it. Former Treasury Department Official Michael Barr is Biden’s expected pick to lead the OCC.
“There is no place in our society for discrimination, and big banks are no exception,” Cramer said in The Hill article. “Financial service providers do not have the right to circumvent the Constitution or the law to create de-facto bans on legally-compliant businesses like energy producers or firearms manufacturers when they believe it is politically convenient.”
The rule codifies more than a decade of OCC guidance stating that banks should conduct a risk assessment of individual customers, rather than make broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers, when provisioning access to services, capital and credit, ACA International previously reported.
It was finalized in January and set to be published in the Federal Register. The rule was paused after the Biden administration issued a memorandum on pending rules at federal agencies.
Cramer’s legislation “would prevent banks of a certain size from refusing to do business with any person who follows the law and prohibit credit card companies from refusing service for political or reputational reasons,” according to The Hill.
It would include fines of up to $10,000 for violations, and violators would be disqualified from borrowing money from the Federal Reserve through its “discount window lending program,” according to the article.