Bank Competition Modernization Act

House Votes

This bill updates how bank mergers and similar deals are reviewed. It tells the Justice Department and bank regulators to count more kinds of competitors when they check if a deal would hurt competition. That includes banks, bank holding companies, industrial loan companies, Farm Credit lenders, nonbank financial companies, and both insured and noninsured credit unions. It also sets a rule for smaller deals: if a merger would create a firm with less than $10 billion in assets, regulators must determine that it does not create a monopoly or reduce competition under the banking, bank holding company, and savings association laws .

What this means for your community: reviews of bank mergers would consider the real choices people use today, like credit unions and other lenders, not just traditional banks. Smaller bank deals would generally be treated as not harming competition, under the rules set in the bill text .

• Who is affected: banks, credit unions, Farm Credit lenders, nonbank financial firms, and customers in areas where mergers happen.
• What changes: regulators must consider more types of financial providers; mergers creating firms under $10 billion in assets are required to be found not harmful to competition .
• When: no specific timing details are provided in the text shared.