A bill to amend the Federal Home Loan Bank Act with respect to membership eligibility of certain institutions.

Bill: 114-s-1367
Sponsor: Sen. Donnelly, Joe [D-IN]
Introduced: 2015-05-18 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Bank accounts, deposits, capital
Banking and financial institutions regulation
Congressional oversight
Government studies and investigations
Housing finance and home ownership

Summary:
action_date: 2015-05-18
text: 
Amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to treat certain privately (but not federally) insured credit unions as insured depository institutions for purposes of determining eligibility for membership in a federal home loan bank. 
 
Permits a credit union which lacks federal deposit insurance and has applied for membership in a federal home loan bank to be treated as meeting all the eligibility requirements for federal deposit insurance if specified conditions are met, including: (1) that the supervisor of the chartering state has determined that the credit union meets all federal deposit insurance eligibility requirements; (2) the state supervisor of the credit union's private deposit insurer receives annual independent actuarial opinions that the private insurer has sufficient reserves for losses, as well as periodic actuarial studies of the insurer's capital adequacy; and (3) the credit union's financial information is made available to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) or to the federal home loan bank. 
 
Deems such a credit union to have met the eligibility criteria for federal home loan bank membership if, 12 months after its application date, the state supervisor has failed to act upon the application.
 
Prohibits the application of a state law authorizing a conservator or liquidating agent of a credit union to repudiate contracts to any: (1) extension of credit from a federal home loan bank to a credit union which is a member of that bank, or (2) security interest in the assets of the credit union securing such extension of credit.
 
Declares that if a federal home loan bank makes an advance to a state-chartered credit union that is not federally insured: (i) the bank's interest in any collateral securing such advance has the same priority and is afforded the same standing and rights that the security interest would have had if the advance had been made to a federally-insured credit union, and (2) the bank has the same right to access such collateral that it would have had if the advance had been made to a federally-insured credit union. 
 
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to require private deposit insurers of credit unions that are members of a federal home loan bank to submit copies of their audit reports within seven days to the FHFA.
 
 Directs the Government Accountability Office to study: (1) the adequacy of insurance reserves held by a private deposit insurer that insures deposits in an insured credit union or any credit union eligible to apply to become one, and (2) such credit unions' compliance with federal regulations governing disclosure of a lack of federal deposit insurance.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2015-05-18
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2015-05-18
text: Introduced in Senate