December 22, 2022
Credit Card Routing Bill Left Out Of Spending Measure
Legislation establishing new credit card routing mandates was excluded from a bipartisan omnibus spending bill after the banking industry warned lawmakers about the risks it posed to community banks. MBA staunchly opposed the Credit Card Competition Act since its introduction and launched a social media campaign to raise awareness about the measure’s impact on credit card reward programs.
“We want to thank our member banks and their customers for their support in defeating this legislation,” said MBA President Jackson Hataway. “We appreciate your time in reaching out to Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley to express your opposition to a bill that imposed government mandates and increased security and fraud risk.”
MBA will continue to actively oppose the legislation and any effort to revive it in the next Congress.
Parson Appoints New State Treasurer
Gov. Mike Parson appointed Vivek Malek, an attorney from Wildwood, to serve as the next state treasurer. He replaces Scott Fitzpatrick, who was elected state auditor in November.
Malek will be sworn into office in mid-January and will be up for re-election in 2024 for a full four-year term. He owns the Law Offices of Vivek Malek in St. Louis and also serves on the Board of Governors for Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau.
Chopra: 1071 Rulemaking Completed By End Of March
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra recently told members of the House Financial Services Committee that the agency will complete the rulemaking for Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act by the end of March. The rule addresses the collection of credit application data for small businesses, including women-owned and minority-owned small businesses.
MBA has been monitoring the 1071 rulemaking process and encouraging banks to prepare for its implementation for the past year. The banking industry has raised concerns about the burden this rule could have on smaller institutions and credit for small businesses. MBA anticipates the CFPB may go beyond statutory requirements for data inputs.
“MBA will analyze the rule upon publication and be prepared to develop education and resources to help MBA members comply with this rule,” said MBA Senior Vice President Carol Barnett.
FinCEN Proposes Rule On Access To Beneficial Ownership Info
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a notice of proposed rulemaking implementing provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act that govern the access to and protection of beneficial ownership information. The proposed regulations would govern the circumstances under which such information must be protected and how it is disclosed to federal agencies; state, local, tribal and foreign governments; and financial institutions. This is the second piece of a three-part rulemaking to implement the CTA.
Under the proposal, financial institutions would not be permitted to run “broad or open-ended queries” in the beneficial ownership database. “Rather, FinCEN anticipates that a financial institution, with a reporting company’s consent, would submit to the system identifying information specific to that reporting company, and receive in return an electronic transcript with that entity’s BOI.” FinCEN added that “this more limited information-retrieval process would reduce the overall risk of inappropriate use or unauthorized disclosures of BOI.”
The proposed rule also outlines how government officials would be permitted to access beneficial ownership information to support law enforcement, national security and intelligence activities, and how regulators could use the database when conducting supervisory activities. It also sets standards for protecting sensitive information.
Finally, FinCEN proposed amendments to the final reporting rule — issued Sept. 30 — to specify when reporting companies may report FinCEN identifiers associated with entities. Written comments on the proposed rule are due Feb. 14.