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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 10057 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                               H. R. 10057

  To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to 
 provide access to FedNow to affordable remittance providers, and for 
                            other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 25, 2024

    Mr. Torres of New York introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to 
 provide access to FedNow to affordable remittance providers, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Affordable Remittance Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) According to the Migration Data Portal, remittance 
        payments support families across the globe and amount to 
        $860,000,000,000 of global payments annually, which surpasses 
        the size of foreign direct investment and development aid to 
        low- and middle-income countries, excluding China.
            (2) Remittance payments are the single largest source of 
        financial support to emerging markets.
            (3) According to the World Bank, digital remittance 
        providers have used technology to improve financial inclusion 
        by improving access and reducing costs to consumers over the 
        last decade from an average of 9 percent to approximately 6 
        percent in 2023.
            (4) Digital remittance providers can offer near 
        instantaneous payments for consumers around the clock.
            (5) Access to Federal Reserve payment rails could enable 
        digital remittance providers to further drive down the cost of 
        remittance payments.

SEC. 3. FEDNOW ACCESS.

    (a) In General.--The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System shall, beginning on the date that is 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this section provide access to FedNow to each 
affordable remittance provider.
    (b) Affordable Remittance Provider.--
            (1) In general.--The Board of Governors of the Federal 
        Reserve System shall, not later than 60 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this section, publish a definition of the term 
        ``affordable remittance provider''.
            (2) Considerations.--When defining the term ``affordable 
        remittance provider'', the Board of Governors of the Federal 
        Reserve System--
                    (A) shall only include persons whose primary 
                business is facilitating affordable remittance 
                payments;
                    (B) may not include depository institutions (as 
                such term is defined in section 3 of the Federal 
                Deposit Insurance Act);
                    (C) may not include any person in such definition 
                unless the person--
                            (i) is registered with the Financial Crimes 
                        Enforcement Network of the Department of the 
                        Treasury or otherwise demonstrates compliance 
                        with the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act; 
                        and
                            (ii) is subject to regulation by a State or 
                        Federal agency with jurisdiction over consumer 
                        protection; and
                    (D) shall consider the World Bank's 3 percent 
                sustainable development goal.
            (3) Limitation.--With respect to persons who are not 
        otherwise subject to supervision or regulation by the Board of 
        Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Board of Governors 
        may not impose capital or liquidity requirements, or otherwise 
        supervise, affordable remittance providers, except as necessary 
        to ensure performance on payments entered in FedNow.
            (4) Bank secrecy act defined.--In this subsection, the term 
        ``Bank Secrecy Act'' means--
                    (A) section 21 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act 
                (12 U.S.C. 1829b);
                    (B) chapter 2 of title I of Public Law 91-508 (12 
                U.S.C. 1951 et seq.); and
                    (C) subchapter II of chapter 53 of title 31, United 
                States Code.
    (c) Annual Report on Trends in the Costs of Remittances.--The Board 
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall annually transmit to 
Congress a report on trends in the costs of remittances.
    (d) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be construed 
to required the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve to provide 
access to master accounts to affordable remittance providers.
                                 <all>
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