Title: Small Business-Community Banker COVID–19 Relief Act of 2020
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector

Summary:
Small Business-Community Banker COVID-19 Relief Act of 2020
This bill allows a depository institution to delay compliance with specified accounting standards when modifying a loan for a small business affected by COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) in a troubled debt restructuring. A depository institution is not required to comply with certain accounting standards applicable to credit losses (i.e., current expected credit losses standards, also known as CECL standards) if it has been substantially affected by COVID-19.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6385 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6385

     To provide temporary relief from troubled debt restructuring 
    disclosures, to delay the implementation of certain accounting 
 standards for depository institutions substantially affected by COVID-
                      19, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2020

  Mr. Curtis introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on 
Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
 in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To provide temporary relief from troubled debt restructuring 
    disclosures, to delay the implementation of certain accounting 
 standards for depository institutions substantially affected by COVID-
                      19, 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 ``Small Business-Community Banker 
COVID-19 Relief Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS RELATING TO COMMUNITY BANKER-SMALL BUSINESS 
              PARTNERSHIP ENHANCEMENT.

    It is the sense of Congress that a depository institution may delay 
any requirements for a payment on a loan made to a small business 
concern substantially affected by COVID-19 for the period during which 
such concern is unable to make any payment due.

SEC. 3. TEMPORARY RELIEF FROM TROUBLED DEBT RESTRUCTURING DISCLOSURES.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an insured depository 
institution that modifies a loan to a small business concern 
substantially affected by COVID-19 in a troubled debt restructuring on 
or after March 13, 2020, shall not be required to comply with the 
identification and disclosures standards issued by the Financial 
Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Subtopic 
310-40 (``Receivables--Troubled Debt Restructurings by Creditors'') for 
purposes of section 27(a)(2)(A) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 
until such time and under such circumstances as the appropriate Federal 
banking agency determines appropriate.

SEC. 4. DELAYED IMPLEMENTATION FOR CECL.

    No Federal agency, including any of the Federal financial 
regulators, may require a depository institution that has been 
substantially affected by COVID-19 to comply with CECL for any purpose.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) CECL.--The term ``CECL'' means the accounting standard 
        in ``Accounting Standards Update 2016-13, Financial 
        Instruments--Credit Losses (Topic 326)'', issued by the 
        Financial Accounting Standards Board in June 2016, as amended 
        by ``Accounting Standards Update 2018-19, Codification 
        Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments--Credit 
        Losses'', issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 
        November 2018.
            (2) Depository institution.--The term ``depository 
        institution'' means any bank or savings association.
            (3) Federal deposit insurance act definitions.--The terms 
        ``appropriate Federal banking agency'' and ``insured depository 
        institution'' have the meanings given such terms, respectively, 
        in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
            (4) Federal financial regulators.--The term ``Federal 
        financial regulators'' means--
                    (A) the Department of the Treasury;
                    (B) the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
                System;
                    (C) the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection;
                    (D) the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency;
                    (E) the Commodity Futures Trading Commission;
                    (F) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation;
                    (G) the Federal Housing Finance Agency;
                    (H) the National Credit Union Administration; and
                    (I) the Securities and Exchange Commission.
            (5) Small business concern.--The term ``small business 
        concern'' has the meaning given such term under section 3 of 
        the Small Business Act.
            (6) Substantially affected.--The term ``substantially 
        affected by COVID-19'' means, with respect to a small business 
        concern or depository institution, an experience of any of the 
        following as the result of Federal, State, or local government 
        action taken to reduce the impact of COVID-19:
                    (A) Supply chain disruptions, including changes 
                in--
                            (i) quantity and lead time, including the 
                        number of shipments of components and delays in 
                        shipments;
                            (ii) quality, including shortages in supply 
                        for quality control reasons; and
                            (iii) technology, including a compromised 
                        payment network.
                    (B) Staffing challenges.
                    (C) Decrease in sales or customers.
                    (D) Shuttered businesses.
                    (E) Negative effects on revenue, earnings, income, 
                debt, or equity.
                    (F) Any additional negative effect identified by 
                any Federal financial regulator.
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