108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1947

AN ACT

To prohibit the offer of credit by a financial institution

to a financial institution examiner, 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 ‘‘Preserving Independ5 ence of Financial Institution Examinations Act of 2003’’.
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1 SEC. 2. OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE OF CREDIT.

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title 18, United States Code, is

3 amended by striking sections 212 and 213 and inserting

4 the following:

5 ‘‘§ 212. Offer of loan or gratuity to financial institu6 tion examiner

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection

8 (b), whoever, being an officer, director or employee of a

9 financial institution, makes or grants any loan or gratuity,

10 to any examiner or assistant examiner who examines or

11 has authority to examine such bank, branch, agency, orga12 nization, corporation, association, or institution—

13 ‘‘(1) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned

14 not more than 1 year, or both; and

15 ‘‘(2) may be fined a further sum equal to the

16 money so loaned or gratuity given.

17 ‘‘(b) REGULATIONS.—A Federal financial institution

18 regulatory agency may prescribe regulations establishing

19 additional limitations on the application for and receipt

20 of credit under this section and on the application and

21 receipt of residential mortgage loans under this section,

22 after consulting with each other Federal financial institu23 tion regulatory agency.

24 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

25 ‘‘(1) EXAMINER.—The term ‘examiner’ means

26 any person—
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1 ‘‘(A) appointed by a Federal financial in2 stitution regulatory agency or pursuant to the

3 laws of any State to examine a financial institu4 tion; or

5 ‘‘(B) elected under the law of any State to

6 conduct examinations of any financial institu7 tions.

8 ‘‘(2) FEDERAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION REGU9 LATORY AGENCY.—The term ‘Federal financial insti10 tution regulatory agency’ means—

11 ‘‘(A) the Office of the Comptroller of the

12 Currency;

13 ‘‘(B) the Board of Governors of the Fed14 eral Reserve System;

15 ‘‘(C) the Office of Thrift Supervision;

16 ‘‘(D) the Federal Deposit Insurance Cor17 poration;

18 ‘‘(E) the Federal Housing Finance Board;

19 ‘‘(F) the Farm Credit Administration;

20 ‘‘(G) the Farm Credit System Insurance

21 Corporation; and

22 ‘‘(H) the Small Business Administration.

23 ‘‘(3) FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.—The term ‘fi24 nancial institution’ does not include a credit union,
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1 a Federal Reserve Bank, a Federal home loan bank,

2 or a depository institution holding company.

3 ‘‘(4) LOAN.—The term ‘loan’ does not include

4 any credit card account established under an open

5 end consumer credit plan or a loan secured by resi6 dential real property that is the principal residence

7 of the examiner, if—

8 ‘‘(A) the applicant satisfies any financial

9 requirements for the credit card account or res10 idential real property loan that are generally

11 applicable to all applicants for the same type of

12 credit card account or residential real property

13 loan;

14 ‘‘(B) the terms and conditions applicable

15 with respect to such account or residential real

16 property loan, and any credit extended to the

17 examiner under such account or residential real

18 property loan, are no more favorable generally

19 to the examiner than the terms and conditions

20 that are generally applicable to credit card ac21 counts or residential real property loans offered

22 by the same financial institution to other bor23 rowers cardholders in comparable circumstances

24 under open end consumer credit plans or for

25 residential real property loans; and
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1 ‘‘(C) with respect to residential real prop2 erty loans, the loan is with respect to the pri3 mary residence of the applicant.

4 ‘‘§ 213. Acceptance of loan or gratuity by financial in5 stitution examiner

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever, being an examiner or

7 assistant examiner, accepts a loan or gratuity from any

8 bank, branch, agency, organization, corporation, associa9 tion, or institution examined by the examiner or from any

10 person connected with it, shall—

11 ‘‘(1) be fined under this title, imprisoned not

12 more than 1 year, or both;

13 ‘‘(2) may be fined a further sum equal to the

14 money so loaned or gratuity given; and

15 ‘‘(3) shall be disqualified from holding office as

16 an examiner.

17 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘exam18 iner’, ‘Federal financial institution regulatory agency’, ‘fi19 nancial institution’, and ‘loan’ have the same meanings as

20 in section 212.’’.

21 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—

22 The table of sections of chapter 11 of title 18, United

23 States Code, is amended by striking the matter relating

24 to sections 212 and 213 and inserting the following:
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‘‘212. Offer of loan or gratuity to financial institution examiner.

‘‘213. Acceptance of loan or gratuity by financial institution examiner.’’.

Passed the Senate November 24, 2003.

Attest:

Secretary.
108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1947

AN ACT

To prohibit the offer of credit by a financial institution to a financial institution examiner, and for

other purposes.