The House Financial Services Committee voted to advance five ICBA-supported bills designed to support community banks.
Key Legislation Advances: The committee voted:
51-0 to pass H.R. 3234—sponsored by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)—which would raise the percentage threshold of reciprocal deposits that may be held by a bank without being considered brokered deposits.
28-24 to pass Rep. Scott Fitzgerald’s (R-Wis.) Bank Competition Modernization Act (H.R. 5262), which would allow banking agencies to not request a Justice Department competitive analysis of a merger or acquisition application that would result in a bank with assets of less than $10 billion.
33-19 to pass Rep. Young Kim’s (R-Calif.) Community Bank LIFT Act (H.R. 5276), which would lower the Community Bank Leverage Ratio from 8-10% to 6-8% and allow banks with up to $15 billion in assets to use the CBLR.
35-17 to pass Rep. Roger Williams’ (R-Texas) Merchant Banking Modernization Act (H.R. 5291), which would amend the Bank Holding Company Act to provide that merchant banking investments made through an affiliate of a bank holding company may generally be held for a period of not less than 15 years.
49-2 to pass the Community Bank Deposit Access Act of 2025 (H.R. 5317), Chairman French Hill’s (R-Ark.) bill to allow custodial deposits to be held by community banks without being considered brokered deposits, provided the custodial deposits do not exceed 20% of the banks’ total liabilities.
ICBA Support: In a letter to the committee ahead of the markup, ICBA called on committee members to vote yes on the bills, which next need to be considered by the full House of Representatives.
ICBA Advocacy: The congressional regulatory relief efforts are in line with ICBA’s “Repair, Reform, and Thrive” plan and open letter to the 119th Congress.
