Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Examination Parity
and Year 2000 Readiness for Financial Institutions Act’’.
SEC. 2. YEAR 2000 READINESS FOR FINANCIAL INSTITU-
TIONS.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
(1) the Year 2000 computer problem poses a
serious challenge to the American economy, includ-
ing the Nation’s banking and financial services in-
dustries;
(2) thousands of banks, savings associations,
and credit unions rely heavily on internal informa-
tion technology and computer systems, as well as
outside service providers, for mission-critical func-
tions, such as check clearing, direct deposit, account-
ing, automated teller machine networks, credit card
processing, and data exchanges with domestic and
international borrowers, customers, and other finan-
cial institutions; and
(3) Federal financial regulatory agencies must
have sufficient examination authority to ensure that
the safety and soundness of the Nation’s financial
institutions will not be at risk.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—
(1) the terms ‘‘depository institution’’ and
‘‘Federal banking agency’’ have the same meanings
as in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Act;
(2) the term ‘‘Federal home loan bank’’ has the
same meaning as in section 2 of the Federal Home
Loan Bank Act;
(3) the term ‘‘Federal reserve bank’’ means a
reserve bank established under the Federal Reserve
Act;
(4) the term ‘‘insured credit union’’ has the
same meaning as in section 101 of the Federal
Credit Union Act; and
(5) the term ‘‘Year 2000 computer problem’’
means, with respect to information technology, any
problem which prevents such technology from accu-
rately processing, calculating, comparing, or se-
quencing date or time data—
(A) from, into, or between—
(i) the 20th and 21st centuries; or
(ii) the years 1999 and 2000; or
(B) with regard to leap year calculations.
(c) SEMINARS AND MODEL APPROACHES TO YEAR
2000 COMPUTER PROBLEM.—
(1) SEMINARS.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—Each Federal banking
agency and the National Credit Union Adminis-
tration Board shall offer seminars to all deposi-
tory institutions and insured credit unions
under the jurisdiction of such agency on the im-
plication of the Year 2000 computer problem
for—
(i) the safe and sound operations of
such depository institutions and credit
unions; and
(ii) transactions with other financial
institutions, 
including 
Federal 
reserve
banks and Federal home loan banks.
(B) CONTENT AND SCHEDULE.—The con-
tent and schedule of seminars offered pursuant
to subparagraph (A) shall be determined by
each Federal banking agency and the National
Credit Union Administration Board taking into
account the resources and examination prior-
ities of such agency.
(2) MODEL APPROACHES.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—Each Federal banking
agency and the National Credit Union Adminis-
tration Board shall make available to each de-
pository institution and insured credit union
under the jurisdiction of such agency model ap-
proaches to common Year 2000 computer prob-
lems, such as model approaches with regard to
project management, vendor contracts, testing
regimes, and business continuity planning.
(B) VARIETY OF APPROACHES.—In devel-
oping model approaches to the Year 2000 com-
puter problem pursuant to subparagraph (A),
each Federal banking agency and the National
Credit Union Administration Board shall take
into account the need to develop a variety of ap-
proaches to correspond to the variety of deposi-
tory institutions or credit unions within the ju-
risdiction of the agency.
(3) COOPERATION.—In carrying out this sec-
tion, the Federal banking agencies and the National
Credit Union Administration Board may cooperate
and coordinate their activities with each other, the
Financial Institutions Examination Council, and ap-
propriate organizations representing depository insti-
tutions and credit unions.
SEC. 3. REGULATION AND EXAMINATION OF SERVICE PRO-
VIDERS.
(a) REGULATION AND EXAMINATION OF SAVINGS AS-
SOCIATION SERVICE COMPANIES.—
(1) AMENDMENT
TO
HOME
OWNERS’ LOAN
ACT.—Section 5(d) of the Home Owners’ Loan Act
(12 U.S.C. 1464(d)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
‘‘(7) REGULATION AND EXAMINATION OF SAV-
INGS
ASSOCIATION
SERVICE
COMPANIES, SUBSIDI-
ARIES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS.—
‘‘(A) GENERAL EXAMINATION AND REGU-
LATORY
AUTHORITY.—A service company or
subsidiary that is owned in whole or in part by
a savings association shall be subject to exam-
ination and regulation by the Director to the
same extent as that savings association.
‘‘(B) EXAMINATION
BY
OTHER
BANKING
AGENCIES.—The Director may authorize any
other Federal banking agency that supervises
any other owner of part of the service company
or subsidiary to perform an examination de-
scribed in subparagraph (A).
‘‘(C) APPLICABILITY
OF
SECTION
OF
THE
FEDERAL
DEPOSIT
INSURANCE
ACT.—A
service company or subsidiary that is owned in