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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3153 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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.

    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 ``Financial Consumer Hotline Act of 
2008''.

SEC. 2. CENTRALIZED INTAKE OF CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AND INQUIRIES MADE TO 
              FEDERAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION REGULATORY AGENCIES.

    The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act of 1978 
(12 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 1009A 
the following new section:

``SEC. 1009B. CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AND INQUIRIES.

    ``(a) Single Toll-Free Telephone Number for Consumer Complaints and 
Inquiries.--
            ``(1) Call intake system.--The Federal financial 
        institution regulatory agencies, coordinating through the 
        Council, shall establish a single, toll-free telephone number 
        for consumer complaints and inquiries concerning institutions 
        regulated by such agencies and a system for routing such calls 
        to the Federal financial institution regulatory agency that 
        primarily supervises the financial institution, or that is 
        otherwise the appropriate agency to address the subject of the 
        complaint or inquiry.
            ``(2) Routing calls to states.--To the extent practicable, 
        State agencies may receive appropriate call transfers from the 
        system established under paragraph (1), if--
                    ``(A) the State agency's system has the functional 
                capacity to receive calls routed by the system; and
                    ``(B) the State agency has satisfied any conditions 
                of participation in the system that the Council, 
                coordinating with State agencies through the 
                chairperson of the State Liaison Committee, may 
                establish.
    ``(b) Report to the Congress.--Not later than 6 months after the 
date of enactment of the Financial Consumer Hotline Act of 2008, the 
Federal financial institution regulatory agencies shall submit a report 
to the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives 
and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate 
describing the agencies' efforts to establish--
            ``(1) a public interagency Web site for directing and 
        referring Internet consumer complaints and inquiries concerning 
        any financial institution to the Federal financial institution 
        regulatory agency that primarily supervises the financial 
        institution, or to the Federal financial institution regulatory 
        agency or State agency that is otherwise the appropriate agency 
        to address the subject of the complaint or inquiry; and
            ``(2) a system to expedite the prompt and effective 
        rerouting of any misdirected consumer complaint or inquiry 
        documents between or among the agencies, with prompt referral 
        of any complaint or inquiry to the appropriate Federal 
        financial institution regulatory agency, and to participating 
        State agencies.''.
                                 <all>
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