A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives by the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee that would require federal banking regulators to each establish Financial Services Innovation Offices within their agencies. This is the second time that Rep. Patrick McHenry [R-N.C.] has attempted this particular piece of legislation.
The Background: The bill, H.R. 7440, has been referred to the House Financial Services Committee and is due to be marked up this coming Thursday during a full committee hearing to discuss a dozen different bills that have been introduced recently.
What It Does: A number of federal regulators:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of the Treasury
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- Federal Housing Finance Agency
- National Credit Union Administration Board
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
- Securities and Exchange Commission
would be required to establish Financial Services Innovation Offices that would:
- support the development of financial innovations
- coordinate with other FSIOs to share information and data about financial innovation
- coordinate with state regulatory agencies to provide information to the public with respect to financial innovations and agency regulations related to such innovations
- establish procedures to reduce the regulatory burden of offering a financial innovation to the public and enable greater access to financial innovations
Each of the heads from the different FSIOs would form an FSIO Liaison Committee that would meet twice a year and
- consult on the administration, coordination, and oversight the FSIO of each agency;
- facilitate the cooperation of each FSIO to ensure that agencies share information and data on petitions submitted under section 6;
- monitor proposals for agency regulation and developments related to financial innovations;
- encourage the application of uniform principles and standards at each FSIO; and
- facilitate collaboration with relevant State regulatory entities to provide information to the public with respect to financial innovations and agency regulations related to such financial innovations.
