II 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3153 

To amend the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act of 

1978, to require the Council to establish a single telephone number 

that consumers with complaints or inquiries could call and be routed 

to the appropriate Federal banking agency or State bank supervisor, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 18, 2008 

Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. CORKER, Mr. ALEXANDER, and Mrs. DOLE) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Financial Institutions Examination 

Council Act of 1978, to require the Council to establish 

a single telephone number that consumers with complaints or inquiries could call and be routed to the appropriate Federal banking agency or State bank supervisor, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Financial Consumer 

5 Hotline Act of 2008’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. CENTRALIZED INTAKE OF CONSUMER COMPLAINTS 

2 AND INQUIRIES MADE TO FEDERAL FINAN3 CIAL INSTITUTION REGULATORY AGENCIES. 

4 The Federal Financial Institutions Examination 

5 Council Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.) is amended 

6 by inserting after section 1009A the following new section: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 1009B. CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AND INQUIRIES. 

8 ‘‘(a) SINGLE TOLL-FREE TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR

9 CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AND INQUIRIES.— 

10 ‘‘(1) CALL INTAKE SYSTEM.—The Federal fi11 nancial institution regulatory agencies, coordinating 

12 through the Council, shall establish a single, toll-free 

13 telephone number for consumer complaints and in14 quiries concerning institutions regulated by such 

15 agencies and a system for routing such calls to the 

16 Federal financial institution regulatory agency that 

17 primarily supervises the financial institution, or that 

18 is otherwise the appropriate agency to address the 

19 subject of the complaint or inquiry. 

20 ‘‘(2) ROUTING CALLS TO STATES.—To the ex21 tent practicable, State agencies may receive appro22 priate call transfers from the system established 

23 under paragraph (1), if— 

24 ‘‘(A) the State agency’s system has the 

25 functional capacity to receive calls routed by the 

26 system; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) the State agency has satisfied any 

2 conditions of participation in the system that 

3 the Council, coordinating with State agencies 

4 through the chairperson of the State Liaison 

5 Committee, may establish. 

6 ‘‘(b) REPORT TO THE CONGRESS.—Not later than 6 

7 months after the date of enactment of the Financial Con8 sumer Hotline Act of 2008, the Federal financial institu9 tion regulatory agencies shall submit a report to the Com10 mittee on Financial Services of the House of Representa11 tives and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 

12 Affairs of the Senate describing the agencies’ efforts to 

13 establish— 

14 ‘‘(1) a public interagency Web site for directing 

15 and referring Internet consumer complaints and in16 quiries concerning any financial institution to the 

17 Federal financial institution regulatory agency that 

18 primarily supervises the financial institution, or to 

19 the Federal financial institution regulatory agency 

20 or State agency that is otherwise the appropriate 

21 agency to address the subject of the complaint or in22 quiry; and 

23 ‘‘(2) a system to expedite the prompt and effec24 tive rerouting of any misdirected consumer com25 plaint or inquiry documents between or among the 


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1 agencies, with prompt referral of any complaint or 

2 inquiry to the appropriate Federal financial institu3 tion regulatory agency, and to participating State 

4 agencies.’’. 

Æ 


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