WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee voted for a number of bills from a markup late Tuesday, including a market structure measure that would give cryptocurrency favorable oversight and legislation that would crack down on the trigger leads that mortgage companies can purchase from a credit bureau when a consumer applies for credit to buy a home.
The
"This legislation is a critical step towards providing legal certainty, protecting consumers and ensuring that the United States remains a leader in digital innovation," panel Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., said at the markup. "Digital asset technology is evolving rapidly and holds enormous potential, however its growth in the United States is being constrained by a fundamental problem — a problem that this committee has grappled with for the better part of four years — the absence of clear and consistent rules and regulations governing its use and development."
It also opens up avenues for financial institutions, including banks, to bypass traditional securities laws, according to criticisms from Democratic lawmakers like ranking committee member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who said at the markup that the bill "creates enormous loopholes that expose investors to fraud and weakens our national security."
Democratic lawmakers offered dozens of amendments to the market structure bill, focused on the possibility for bailing out crypto issuers, financial stability and the potential for corruption of government officials, all voted down.
"How could crypto get bailed out? Well, first pass this bill, build a super highway, and then read it in conjunction with section 13 (3) of the Federal Reserve Act, which is available for nonbanks in unusual and exigent circumstances," Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said at the markup. "The purpose of this bill is to facilitate a crypto world that is clearly going to be systemically important to the United States and to the world economy."
The House Agriculture Committee passed the same bill — necessary because of that panel's oversight of the CFTC — Tuesday afternoon in a 47-6 vote.
Shelia Bair, who chaired the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from 2006 to 2011, said that while post-crisis reforms may have overregulated banks, the current deregulatory swing could undermine important protections and lead to another banking crisis.
The HFSC also passed seven other bills at the markup.
One — a piece of legislation designed to
The bill would ban unsolicited credit offers via phone, email, text or mail unless a consumer opts in to receiving them, with exceptions for the consumer's mortgage servicer or originator, and for banks and credit unions with which the consumer already has a relationship.
Another measure that banks favor passed along closer margins and is less likely to pass into law. The Small Bank Holding Company Relief Act, which would require the Federal Reserve to raise the consolidated asset threshold to $25 billion for small bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies, passed in a 30-20 vote.
A Democrat-led bill, the Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act, also passed unanimously. The bill by Rep. Al. Green, D-Texas, would require the Government Accountability Office and any involved bank regulators to issue reports after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. invokes the systemic risk exception, as it did in the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank failure.
