II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2698 

To provide regulatory easement for lending institutions that enable a vibrant 

economy. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 30, 2014 

Mr. KING (for himself, Mr. WARNER, Mr. TESTER, and Mrs. FISCHER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To provide regulatory easement for lending institutions that 

enable a vibrant economy. 

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 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Regulatory Easement for Lending Institutions that En6 able a Vibrant Economy Act of 2014’’ or the ‘‘RELIEVE 

7 Act’’. 

8 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

9 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title. 


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TITLE I—EXPANSION OF SMALL BANK HOLDING COMPANY 

POLICY STATEMENT DEFINITION 

Sec. 101. Changes required to small bank holding company policy statement on 

assessment of financial and managerial factors. 

Sec. 102. Conforming amendment. 

Sec. 103. Definitions. 

TITLE II—QUALIFIED MORTGAGES FOR RURAL LENDERS 

Sec. 201. Qualified mortgages for rural lenders. 

TITLE III—INSURANCE OF AMOUNTS HELD ON BEHALF OF 

OTHERS 

Sec. 301. Insurance of amounts held on behalf of others. 

1 TITLE I—EXPANSION OF SMALL 

2 BANK HOLDING COMPANY 

3 POLICY STATEMENT DEFINI4 TION 

5 SEC. 101. CHANGES REQUIRED TO SMALL BANK HOLDING 

6 COMPANY POLICY STATEMENT ON ASSESS7 MENT OF FINANCIAL AND MANAGERIAL FAC8 TORS. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—Before the end of the 6-month pe10 riod beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, 

11 the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 

12 (hereafter in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Board’’) shall 

13 publish in the Federal Register proposed revisions to the 

14 Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement on As15 sessment of Financial and Managerial Factors (12 C.F.R. 

16 part 225 appendix C) that provide that the policy shall 

17 apply to bank holding companies and savings and loan 


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1 holding companies which have pro forma consolidated as2 sets of less than $1,000,000,000 and that— 

3 (1) are not engaged in significant nonbanking 

4 activities either directly or through a nonbank sub5 sidiary; 

6 (2) do not conduct significant off-balance sheet 

7 activities (including securitization and asset manage8 ment or administration) either directly or through a 

9 nonbank subsidiary; and 

10 (3) do not have a material amount of debt or 

11 equity securities outstanding (other than trust pre12 ferred securities) that are registered with the Securi13 ties and Exchange Commission. 

14 (b) EXCLUSIONS.—The Board may exclude any bank 

15 holding company or savings and loan holding company, re16 gardless of asset size, from the policy statement under 

17 subsection (a) if the Board determines that such action 

18 is warranted for supervisory purposes. 

19 SEC. 102. CONFORMING AMENDMENT. 

20 Section 171(b)(5)(C) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street 

21 Reform and Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. 

22 5371(b)(5)(C)) is amended by inserting ‘‘or small savings 

23 and loan holding company’’ after ‘‘any small bank holding 

24 company’’. 


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1 SEC. 103. DEFINITIONS. 

2 For the purposes of this title: 

3 (a) BANK HOLDING COMPANY.—The term ‘‘bank 

4 holding company’’ has the same meaning as in section 2 

5 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 

6 1841). 

7 (b) SAVINGS AND LOAN HOLDING.—The term ‘‘sav8 ings and loan holding company’’ has the same meaning 

9 as in section 10(a) of the Home Owners’ Loan Act (12 

10 U.S.C. 1467a(a)). 

11 TITLE II—QUALIFIED MORT12 GAGES FOR RURAL LENDERS 

13 SEC. 201. QUALIFIED MORTGAGES FOR RURAL LENDERS. 

14 Section 129C(b)(2) of the Truth in Lending Act (15 

15 U.S.C. 1639c(b)(2)) is amended— 

16 (1) in subparagraph (E)(vi)(II), by striking ‘‘a 

17 limit set by the Board’’ and inserting ‘‘1,000 per 

18 year’’; and 

19 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol20 lowing: 

21 ‘‘(F) RURAL.—The term ‘rural’ means any 

22 area other than— 

23 ‘‘(i) a city or town that has a popu24 lation of greater than 50,000 inhabitants; 

25 and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) any urbanized area contiguous 

2 and adjacent to a city or town described in 

3 clause (i).’’. 

4 TITLE III—INSURANCE OF 

5 AMOUNTS HELD ON BEHALF 

6 OF OTHERS 

7 SEC. 301. INSURANCE OF AMOUNTS HELD ON BEHALF OF 

8 OTHERS. 

9 Section 207(k) of the Federal Credit Union Act (12 

10 U.S.C. 1787(k)) is amended— 

11 (1) in paragraph (1)(A)— 

12 (A) by inserting after ‘‘payable to any 

13 member’’ the following: ‘‘, or to any person with 

14 funds lawfully held in a member account,’’; and 

15 (B) by striking ‘‘and paragraphs (5) and 

16 (6)’’; 

17 (2) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking ‘‘(as deter18 mined under paragraph (5))’’; 

19 (3) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para20 graph (6); and 

21 (4) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol22 lowing: 

23 ‘‘(5) COVERAGE FOR INTEREST ON LAWYERS

24 TRUST ACCOUNTS AND OTHER SIMILAR ESCROW AC25 COUNTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) PASS-THROUGH INSURANCE.—The 

2 Administration shall provide pass-through share 

3 insurance for the deposits or shares of any in4 terest on lawyers trust account (commonly re5 ferred to as ‘IOLTA’) or other similar escrow 

6 accounts. 

7 ‘‘(B) TREATMENT OF IOLTAS.— 

8 ‘‘(i) TREATMENT AS ESCROW AC9 COUNTS.—For share insurance purposes, 

10 IOLTAs are treated as escrow accounts. 

11 ‘‘(ii) TREATMENT AS MEMBER AC12 COUNTS.—IOLTAs and other similar es13 crow accounts are considered member ac14 counts for purposes of paragraph (1), if 

15 the attorney administering the IOLTA or 

16 the escrow agent administering the escrow 

17 account is a member of the insured credit 

18 union in which the funds are held. 

19 ‘‘(C) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 

20 paragraph: 

21 ‘‘(i) INTEREST ON LAWYERS TRUST

22 ACCOUNT.—The terms ‘interest on lawyers 

23 trust account’ or ‘IOLTA’ mean a system 

24 in which lawyers place certain client funds 

25 in interest-bearing or dividend-bearing acVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:54 Aug 06, 2014 Jkt 039060 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2698.IS S2698

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1 counts, with the interest or dividends then 

2 used to fund programs such as legal serv3 ice organizations who provide services to 

4 clients in need. 

5 ‘‘(ii) PASS-THROUGH SHARE INSUR6 ANCE.—The term ‘pass-through share in7 surance’ means, with respect to IOLTAs 

8 and other similar escrow accounts, insur9 ance coverage based on the interest of each 

10 person on whose behalf funds are held in 

11 such accounts by the attorney admin12 istering the IOLTA or the escrow agent 

13 administering a similar escrow account, in 

14 accordance with regulations issued by the 

15 Administration. 

16 ‘‘(D) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—No provi17 sion of this paragraph shall be construed as au18 thorizing an insured credit union to accept the 

19 deposits of an IOLTA or similar escrow account 

20 in an amount greater than such credit union is 

21 authorized to accept under any other provision 

22 of Federal or State law.’’. 

Æ 


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