Bill Summary
This bill relieves all but about 12 of the country's largest banks from the extra scrutiny required for being considered Too Big to Fail.
It also frees small banks to increase the risk factors of their investments.
The restrictions had been put in place by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Below we list the major provisions of the bill.
Large banks get less scrutiny and $1/2 billion
This bill raises the asset threshold for a bank to be designated as Too Big to Fail from $50 billion to $250 billion. Of the 38 banks with assets of at least $50 billion, only about 12 have assets over $250 billion. Those largest ones will be required to continue under increased scrutiny.
Aside from adding a degree of risk to lowering the scrutiny on most large banks, this will cost the federal government approximately $500 million over the next 10 years. The reason is that banks designated as Too Big to Fail are required to reimburse the government for the cost of the scrutiny. The banks no longer requiring the scrutiny will no longer need to reimburse the government.
Small banks allowed to make riskier investments
Banks with less than $10 billion in assets now will be allowed to make riskier investments prohibited by the Volcker Rule.
Credit freezing now free to consumers
Credit reporting agencies no longer will be allowed to charge you to freeze (or unfreeze) your credit.
Credit reporting agencies also will be required to provide a web page for consumers to request freezes and fraud alerts.
Several states already had prohibited these charges, and the credit reporting agencies already had established web pages to request freezes.
More information
For more details and supporting data, see the Congressional Budget Office report.