Continued Encouragement for Consumer Lending Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1564 To require the Securities and Exchange Commission and certain Federal agencies to carry out a study relating to accounting standards, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 21, 2019 Mr. TILLIS (for himself, Mr. MORAN, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. COTTON, Mr. PERDUE, and Mr. ROUNDS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To require the Securities and Exchange Commission and certain Federal agencies to carry out a study relating to accounting standards, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Continued Encourage- 4 ment for Consumer Lending Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act— 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1564.IS S1564 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1564 IS (1) the term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con- 1 gress’’ means— 2 (A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 3 and Urban Affairs of the Senate; and 4 (B) the Committee on Financial Services 5 of the House of Representatives; 6 (2) the term ‘‘CECL’’ means the accounting 7 standard in ‘‘Accounting Standards Update 2016– 8 13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 9 326)’’, issued by the Financial Accounting Stand- 10 ards Board in June 2016, as amended by ‘‘Account- 11 ing Standards Update 2018–19, Codification Im- 12 provements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments— 13 Credit Losses’’, issued by the Financial Accounting 14 Standards Board in November 2018; 15 (3) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Securi- 16 ties and Exchange Commission; 17 (4) the term ‘‘Federal financial regulators’’ 18 means— 19 (A) the Secretary of the Treasury; 20 (B) the Board of Governors of the Federal 21 Reserve System; 22 (C) the Bureau of Consumer Financial 23 Protection; 24 (D) the Comptroller of the Currency; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1564.IS S1564 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1564 IS (E) the Commodity Futures Trading Com- 1 mission; 2 (F) the Federal Deposit Insurance Cor- 3 poration; 4 (G) the Director of the Federal Housing 5 Finance Agency; and 6 (H) the National Credit Union Administra- 7 tion; and 8 (5) the term ‘‘small business concern’’ has the 9 meaning given the term in section 3(a) of the Small 10 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)). 11 SEC. 3. STUDY AND REPORT. 12 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission and the Federal 13 financial regulators, in consultation with the Financial Ac- 14 counting Standards Board, shall conduct a quantitative 15 study of— 16 (1) the potential impact that the implementa- 17 tion of CECL may have on the availability of credit, 18 with a particular focus on the impact on that avail- 19 ability— 20 (A) for consumers and small business con- 21 cerns; and 22 (B) with respect to the credit products on 23 which consumers and small business concerns 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1564.IS S1564 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1564 IS rely during periods of economic expansion and 1 during recessions; 2 (2) whether implementing CECL could— 3 (A) accelerate the depletion of regulatory 4 capital that is available for lending purposes 5 during a recession; 6 (B) have a greater impact on regulatory 7 capital, or extend the period in which regulatory 8 capital is reduced, during a recession; or 9 (C) pose any other systemic risks to the 10 economy of the United States; 11 (3) the potentially disproportionate impact that 12 the implementation of CECL may have on financial 13 institutions, taking into account— 14 (A) the various sizes and levels of com- 15 plexity of those financial institutions; and 16 (B) the different amounts of resources that 17 are available to those financial institutions; 18 (4) the potential impact that the implementa- 19 tion of CECL may have on the decisions made by 20 investors; and 21 (5) the potential competitive impact that the 22 implementation of CECL may have on institutions 23 in the United States as a result of differing inter- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1564.IS S1564 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1564 IS national accounting standards used to measure cred- 1 it loss. 2 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 3 of enactment of this Act, the Commission and the Federal 4 financial regulators shall submit to the Financial Account- 5 ing Standards Board and the appropriate committees of 6 Congress a report— 7 (1) regarding the results of the study conducted 8 under subsection (a); and 9 (2) that shall include— 10 (A) the identification of any negative im- 11 pacts resulting from the implementation of 12 CECL; and 13 (B) recommendations for changes to 14 CECL to eliminate or mitigate the negative im- 15 pacts described in subparagraph (A). 16 SEC. 4. DELAY IN IMPLEMENTATION OF CECL. 17 During the period beginning on the date of enactment 18 of this Act and ending on the date that is 1 year after 19 the date on which the Commission and the Federal finan- 20 cial regulators submit the report required under section 21 3(b), neither the Commission nor any of the Federal fi- 22 nancial regulators may require a person to comply with 23 CECL. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1564.IS S1564 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS