Main Street Capital Access Act

What this does

The House passed a broad rollback of bank regulation covering new-bank formation, regulatory tailoring, exams, mergers, funding, and failure resolution.

House vote · 270-155

Democrats56–154

Republicans213–1

Independents1–0

How we know · 14 sourced claims

The bill shortens the review of new bank charters and makes a de novo bank pilot permanent unless regulators later find harm to safety and soundness.Source: Sec. 101, amending Sec. 908 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act: striking '180-day' and inserting '90-day'; new subsection (c)(2) making the authorities permanent unless the Federal banking agencies determine between Jan 1 and June 30, 2031 a significant adverse effect on safety and soundness
The bill orders regulators to tailor and inflation-index the asset thresholds that trigger tougher rules.Source: Sec. 201(a) 'Consideration and tailoring'; Sec. 203 new Sections 177 and 178 (periodic adjustments to thresholds by nominal GDP or CPI); Sec. 204 (periodic adjustments to community-bank dollar amounts)
The bill raises the Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement threshold to $6 billion.Source: Sec. 202: revise appendix C to part 225 of title 12 CFR to raise the consolidated asset threshold to $6,000,000,000
The bill caps bank exams at 270 days and forces a final examination report within 90 days.Source: Sec. 302(a), new Section 1013: complete any examination within 270 days; provide a final examination report not later than 90 days after the exit interview or additional material information
The bill lets well-managed banks and credit unions under $6 billion in assets take limited-scope exams every other cycle.Source: Sec. 303(a)(1) new FDI Act Sec. 10(d)(11) and (a)(2) new FCU Act Sec. 204(h): for well managed and well capitalized institutions with $6,000,000,000 or less in consolidated assets, the next examination after a full-scope exam shall be a limited-scope examination
The bill creates a new Office of Independent Examination Review with a presidentially appointed board to hear bank appeals of exam findings.Source: Sec. 302(c) new Section 1015 (Office of Independent Examination Review; Board of 3 members appointed by the President with Senate consent) and Sec. 302(d) new Section 1016 (right to independent review of material supervisory determinations)
In enforcement cases the bill lets institutions elect a federal district court instead of the agency's own hearing.Source: Sec. 302(f), amending FDI Act Sec. 8 (subsections (b)(11), (e)(8), (i)(2)(H)) and FCU Act Sec. 206: a hearing before the appropriate Federal banking agency or, on timely request, the appropriate United States district court
The bill bars the banking agencies from using reputational risk in supervision, but only if each agency's own study first finds that removing it would not threaten safety and soundness.Source: Sec. 304(c) (study), (d) and (e) (removal and prohibition apply 'If a Federal banking agency determines, under subsection (c), that the removal of reputational risk ... would not threaten the safety and soundness')
The bill strips antitrust and competition review from bank mergers that leave the combined firm under $10 billion in assets, provided the deal does not leave only one bank in a metro area.Source: Sec. 601(a) new FDI Act Sec. 18(c)(16), (b) new BHC Act Sec. 3(c)(8), (c) new HOLA Sec. 10(e)(10): for transactions resulting in less than $10,000,000,000 in assets that would not leave only one insured depository institution with a physical presence in any relevant metropolitan statistical area, the agency shall not consider monopoly or lessening-of-competition effects
The bill sets hard merger-decision deadlines after which an unanswered application is deemed granted.Source: Sec. 604(a) new BHC Act Sec. 3(b)(1)(C) (grant or deny within 120 days; failure to act deems the application granted); parallel deadlines in Sec. 604(b) HOLA and 604(c) FDI Act Sec. 18(c)(15)
The bill raises the cap on reciprocal deposits that escape brokered-deposit treatment from about $96 billion to $250 billion.Source: Sec. 502(a), amending FDI Act Sec. 29(i)(1)(C): striking '$96,333,333,333' and inserting '$250,000,000,000'
The bill lets the FDIC choose a costlier bank-failure resolution than the cheapest one when doing so avoids further concentration in the largest banks.Source: Sec. 701(a), new FDI Act Sec. 13(c)(4)(I): the Corporation may select an alternative that is not the least costly to the Deposit Insurance Fund where the additional risk is outweighed by the benefit of limiting further concentration in global systemically important banking organizations
The bill reduces the Federal Reserve's discretionary surplus fund by $425 million, effective September 1, 2036.Source: Sec. 803: the dollar amount under section 7(a)(3)(A) of the Federal Reserve Act is reduced by $425,000,000, effective September 1, 2036
The Act is single-subject bank and credit-union deregulation, with the $425 million surplus-fund cut serving as a revenue offset rather than an unrelated rider.Source: Table of contents (Sec. 1(b)) listing Titles I-VIII, all amending federal banking and credit-union statutes; Sec. 803 (surplus fund reduction) as the sole fiscal provision

Read the bill on congress.gov ↗

Your representatives

How did your member vote on this?

House roll call

The full roll call

R213–1D56–154I1–0

Position

Party

State

Republicans

218

Democrats

212

Independents

YeaKevin KileyCA · District 3