102nd Congress > Senate > Vote 417
Clerk session vote number: 137
Description: An original bill to improve the regulation of Government-sponsored enterprises.
Bill summary: Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act of 1992 - Sets forth congressional findings and definitions.
Title I: Supervision and Regulation of the Enterprises
- Establishes within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, managed by a presidentially appointed Director, who shall ensure that the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) (the enterprises)
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are adequately capitalized and operating safely.
Authorizes the Director, without the review or approval of the Secretary of HUD, to: (1) issue regulations for the financial health and security of the enterprises, including the establishment of capital standards; (2) examine each enterprise's financial and operating condition; (3) determine capital levels of the enterprises; (4) undertake administrative and enforcement actions; (5) appoint conservators of the enterprises; (6) monitor and enforce compliance with housing goals; and (7) conduct research and financial analysis.
Authorizes the Director, subject to the Secretary's review and approval, to issue regulations: (1) concerning the housing finance missions of the enterprises, including affordable housing; and (2) establishing and monitoring compliance with fair lending requirements.
Subjects the introduction of any new program by an enterprise to prior approval by both the Director and the Secretary. Allows an adequately capitalized enterprise to introduce a new program with notice to the Director and the Secretary. Exempts such a new program from approval by the Director; and deems it approved by the Secretary within 20 days after submission unless the Secretary determines there is substantial probability the program is not authorized by the relevant charter Act or would have a deleterious effect on housing finance.
Authorizes the Director to levy annual assessments on the enterprises (payable semiannually) for the estimated expenses of the Office, including an initial assessment to cover its start-up costs. Permits the Director, in his or her discretion, to increase an enterprise's semiannual payment, to cover additional estimated regulation and enforcement costs, if the enterprise is not adequately capitalized.
Requires the Director to report annually to the Secretary of HUD and specified congressional committees.
Requires each enterprise to report quarterly and annually to the Director on its financial condition and operations.
Requires each enterprise to have an annual independent audit made of its financial statements by an independent public accountant.
Requires the Director to conduct a full-scope, on-site examination of each enterprise at least annually.
Requires each enterprise to establish a minority outreach program to ensure inclusion in its contracts of minorities and women and businesses owned by them.
Amends the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act to prohibit the Secretary from merging or consolidating the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, or any of its functions or responsibilities, with any function or program the Secretary administers.
Prohibits the Director and any former officer or employee of the Office, who was compensated at certain levels higher than GS-15 while employed by the Office, from accepting compensation from any enterprise during the two years following separation from the Office.
Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed: (1) as obligating the Federal Government, either directly or indirectly, to provide any funds to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, or to honor, reimburse, or otherwise guarantee any of their obligations or liabilities; or (2) as implying that either enterprise or its securities are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.
Requires the Attorney General to report annually to specified congressional committees on the number and status of requests by the Director to the Attorney General during the previous calendar year to conduct litigation.
Requires the Director to prohibit an enterprise from providing excessive compensation to any executive officer.
Title II: Requires Capital Levels for Enterprises and Special Enforcement Powers
- Requires the Director to establish by regulation a risk-based capital test which shall require each enterprise to maintain positive capital during a ten-year period ("stress period") in which specified circumstances occur with respect to credit risk, interest rate risk, and new enterprise business. Declares that the risk-based capital level for an enterprise shall be 130 percent of the amount of capital required to meet the risk-based capital test.
Requires the minimum capital level for each enterprise to be the sum of: (1) 2.5 percent of its aggregate on-balance sheet assets; (2) 0.45 percent of the unpaid principal balance of outstanding mortgage-backed securities and substantially equivalent instruments issued or guaranteed by it that are not included in (1); and (3) those percentages of other off-balance sheet obligations not included in (2) (excluding certain commitments), that best reflect the credit risk of such obligations or guarantees in relation to the instruments included in (2).
Requires the critical capital level for each enterprise to be the sum of: (1) 1.25 percent of the aggregate on-balance sheet assets of the enterprise; (2) 0.25 percent of the unpaid principal balance of outstanding mortgage-backed securities and substantially equivalent instruments issued or guaranteed by it that are not included in (1); and (3) those percentages of other off-balance sheet obligations not included in (2) (excluding certain commitments), that best reflect the credit risk of such obligations or guarantees in relation to the instruments included in (2).
Requires the Director to classify, on a quarterly basis, each enterprise as adequately capitalized (meeting or exceeding both its risk-based capital level and its minimum capital level), undercapitalized, significantly undercapitalized, or critically undercapitalized.
Requires undercapitalized and significantly undercapitalized enterprises to submit capital restoration plans to the Director and, after approval, carry them out. Prohibits such enterprises from making any capital distribution that would result in a lower classification. Authorizes the Director, in the event an enterprise fails to submit a substantially compliant plan, win approval for a submitted plan, or make reasonable good-faith efforts to comply with an approved plan, to: (1) reclassify an undercapitalized enterprise as significantly undercapitalized, or a significantly undercapitalized enterprise as critically undercapitalized; and (2), with respect to significantly undercapitalized enterprises, limit increases in obligations, limit or prohibit asset growth, restrict certain activities, require new capital, and (in certain circumstances) appoint a conservator.
Requires the Director to appoint a conservator for a critically undercapitalized enterprise, unless the public interest would be better served by some other enforcement action.
Sets forth the contents of capital restoration plans. Requires written notification of an enterprise before any proposed capital classification may be made or discretionary enforcement action taken.
Provides for judicial review of certain classifications or supervisory enforcement actions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Requires the Director, for each enterprise, to contract with two nationally recognized statistical rating organizations: (1) to assess and rate, as a traditional credit rating, the likelihood that the enterprise will be unable to meet its obligations from its own resources with an assumption that there is no recourse to any implicit Government guarantee; and (2) to review the enterprise's rating as frequently as appropriate, but at least annually. Requires submission of comments to specified congressional committees on any difference between the Office's evaluation and the evaluation of the rating organizations, especially about capital adequacy.
Requires the Director to define by regulation the meaning of "capital," excluding any amounts that an enterprise could be required to pay, at the option of investors, to retire capital instruments.
Title III: Enforcement Actions
- Sets forth general procedures for: (1) issuing temporary and permanent cease-and-desist orders against enterprises; (2) hearings; (3) judicial review; (4) three-tiered civil money penalties; (5) notice after separation from service; (7) private rights of action; and (8) public disclosure of final orders and agreements.
Title IV: Conservatorship
- Provides a procedure for the appointment of a conservator if: (1) an enterprise is in an unsafe or unsound condition to transact business, and such condition threatens the enterprise's viability or a depletion of substantially all of its capital; (2) the enterprise has concealed or is concealing its books, records, or assets, or refuses to submit them for proper inspection; or (3) the enterprise has willfully violated or is willfully violating a final cease-and-desist order.
Provides for judicial review of such appointment, and termination of a conservatorship. Specifies the powers of a conservator, and provides for errors or omissions liability protection.
Title V: Housing
- Requires the Director to establish specified housing goals for each enterprise, including goals for purchase of mortgages on housing for low- and moderate-income families, and on housing located in underserved areas (both urban and rural). Requires an annual special affordable housing goal that is not less than one percent of the dollar amount of the mortgage purchases by the enterprise for the previous year. Specifies interim target goals for the two-year transition period following enactment of this Act. Sets forth factors to be applied in establishing such goals.
Requires the Director to establish guidelines to measure the extent of compliance with housing goals established under this title.
Requires each enterprise to collect and provide to the Director, in useful form, data relating to both its single family and multifamily housing mortgages, including certain information and annual reports to the Director and the Congress.
Requires the Director to include in the annual report to specified congressional committees an evaluation of the extent to which each enterprise is achieving annual goals and general purposes.
Requires the Director to monitor and enforce compliance with such goals, filing goal failure notices and requiring (of noncompliant enterprise) submission of housing plans. Prescribes deadlines for approval or disapproval of such housing plans.
Requires each enterprise to appoint an Affordable Housing Advisory Council to advise it on possible methods to promote affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families.
Amends the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation Act to: (1) make it a purpose of such Acts to promote access to mortgage credit throughout the Nation (including central cities and rural areas) by increasing the liquidity of mortgage investments, including facilitating credit secured by mortgages to secondary market participants, and improving the distribution of investment capital available for residential mortgage financing; (2) indicate that each of their respective public purposes relates to both single-family and multifamily housing; and (3) require that at least one presidentially appointed member of each enterprise's board of directors has demonstrated a career commitment to the provision of low-income housing.
Directs the Secretary, by regulation, to impose on the enterprises specified fair housing requirements and prohibitions.
Prohibits the public disclosure of proprietary information.
Title VI: Amendments to Charter Acts of Enterprises
- Makes conforming amendments to the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation Act.
Title VII: Regulation of Federal Home Loan Bank System
- Amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to declare that the primary duty of the Federal Housing Finance Board is to ensure that the Federal Home Loan Banks operate in a financially safe and sound manner.
Requires the Federal Housing Finance Board, the Comptroller General of the United States, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and the Secretary to study and report to the Congress on specified aspects of the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury and certain Federal agencies to submit opinions to the Congress to the extent that their views differ from those of the study participants.
Requires the Board of Directors of each Federal Home Loan Bank to submit to the Congress its evaluation of the costs and benefits of consolidating the Federal Home Loan Bank System.
Requires the Federal Home Loan Banks to set up a Study Committee to study and report to specified congressional committees, the Federal Housing Finance Board, and the presidents of the Federal Home Loan Banks on the same topics covered by the above study.
Amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to require that all Board directors shall serve on a full-time basis beginning January 1, 1994.
Amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to declare that an advance to a State housing finance agency for the purpose of facilitating mortgage lending that benefits individuals and families meeting certain income requirements need not be collateralized by a mortgage insured under title II of the National Housing Act if the advance otherwise meets specified requirements of the Act and any real estate collateral for such comprises single family or multifamily residential mortgages.
Title VIII: Study of National Consumer Cooperative Bank
- Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to specified congressional committees on: (1) the extent to which the National Consumer Cooperative Bank has achieved its statutory purposes under the National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act; and (2) the financial safety and soundness of the activities of the Bank and its affiliates. Specifies items the study must cover.
Title IX: Miscellaneous - Subtitle A: Miscellaneous
- Directs the Comptroller General, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and the Secretary of the Treasury to study and report to specified congressional committees on the desirability and feasibility of eliminating Federal sponsorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to allow 500 low-rent housing assistance (section 8) certificates earmarked for use in the Park Central New Town in Town project (in Port Arthur, Texas) to be available for use generally in Jefferson County, Texas.
Amends the Cranston-Gonzales Affordable Housing Act to authorize assistance to all non-profit organizations, including municipal and State-owned or -sponsored organizations (currently only private ones), to expand the supply of supportive housing for persons with disabilities (Shelter Plus Care program).
Amends the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 to apply only to home purchase and other consumer loans the maximum interest rate cap for adjustable rate mortgage loans.
Amends a section of the Revised Statutes (National Bank Act) and the Federal Reserve Act to permit national banks and State member banks to make investments in community development projects or an entity primarily engaged in such investments. Prohibits any such investment if it would expose the bank to unlimited liability. Requires the Comptroller General or the Federal Reserve Board, as appropriate, to limit the investment in any one project. Limits the aggregate investment of a bank to the sum of ten percent of its paid-in, unimpaired stock plus ten percent of its unimpaired surplus; but permits such aggregate investment to exceed five percent of capital only if the bank is adequately capitalized and the higher amount will pose no significant risk of loss to the affected deposit insurance fund.
Declares that it is the sense of the Senate that any final Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) legislation should make it clear that the independence of the regulator overseeing the safety and soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should not be compromised.
Amends the Home Owners' Loan Act of 1933 to extend from June 30, 1992, through October 31, 1992, the 75 percent applicable percentage transition rule with respect to separate capitalization of savings association's subsidiaries.
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to require an undercapitalized insured depository institution to notify the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) before entering into an agreement to sell credit card accounts receivable. Authorizes the FDIC, at its sole discretion, to waive (in writing) its right to repudiate such an agreement if the waiver is in the best interests of the deposit insurance fund. Binds any receiver, conservator, or other acquirer of the selling institution, where the FDIC has waived such right, to any terms of such an agreement that restrict solicitation of a credit card customer of the selling institution, or the use of a credit card customer list. States that the binding effect of such terms, however, does not: (1) restrict the acquirer's authority to offer any product or service to any person identified without using such a customer list; (2) require the acquirer to restrict any pre-existing relationship between the acquirer and a customer; or (3) apply to any transaction in which the acquirer acquires only insured deposits.
Amends the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), with respect to real estate appraisals in connection with federally related transactions, to authorize each Federal financial institution's regulatory agency and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) to establish a threshold level at or below which a certified or licensed appraiser is not required to perform such appraisals, if the agency determines in writing that such threshold level does not represent a threat to the safety and soundness of the financial institutions it regulates.
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to state that, for any tort action brought by the RTC in its capacity as conservator or receiver of a failed savings association, the applicable statute of limitations shall be the longer of: (1) the five-year period beginning on the date the claim accrues; or (2) the period applicable under State law. Terminates this provision upon termination of the RTC. Grants the FDIC, as successor to the RTC, the right to pursue any tort action that was properly brought before the RTC before its termination.
Amends the Federal Reserve Act, with respect to aggregate limits on insider lending by member banks of the Federal Reserve System, to exclude from the meaning of "extension of credit" to all executive officers, directors, and principal shareholders any extension of credit fully secured by U.S. obligations or federally guaranteed obligations.
Amends the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit Federal banking agencies from prescribing standards or regulations that set a specific level or range of compensation for officers, directors, or employees of insured depository institutions.
Amends the Truth in Savings Act to establish a schedule of renewal notices to depositors for time deposits with different maturity periods over or under two years where the deposits are renewable at maturity without notice from the depositor.
Declares that it is the sense of the Senate that the Congress needs to act immediately to forestall a possible railroad strike set to occur at midnight July 1, 1992, since the economic ramifications of such a strike are devastating to the country, and congressional action could prevent that economic damage.
Sets a moratorium, from the date of enactment through the ensuing 15 months, during which no Federal savings association may establish or acquire a branch outside the State in which the association has its home office, unless such establishment or acquisition would have been permitted by law before April 9, 1992.
Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to report to the Congress, and update periodically, detailed information on each of the sites on the National Priorities List established under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). Requires the Administrator to establish such information in a computer data base accessible by computer telecommunications and other means to any person on a cost-reimbursable basis. Requires the General Accounting Office to review and report biannually to the Congress all relevant governmental and other studies of the effectiveness of such Act. Requires the Administrator of EPA to make an additional report to the Congress on a statistically significant number of sites on the National Priorities List (at least 40) with respect to: (1) the present or future risks to human health and the environment of each site; (2) methods to insure that costs and effectiveness of remedial measures adopted for individual sites are reasonably appropriate to such risks; (3) appropriate remedial action at each site; and (4) the uses of each of the sites after a removal action, other interim action, remedial action, or any other response has been completed.
Subtitle B: Presidential Insurance Commission
- Presidential Insurance Commission Act of 1992 - Establishes a Presidential Commission on Insurance to: (1) assess the condition of the property and casualty insurance, life insurance, health insurance, and reinsurance industries; and (2) recommend any appropriate legislation or administrative action.
Requires a report to the President and the Congress by a specified deadline. Terminates the Commission 60 days after submission of the report.
Authorizes appropriations.
Subtitle C: Secondary Market for Commercial Mortgage Loans
- Secondary Market for Commercial Real Estate Mortgage and Small Business Loans Act of 1992 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission to study and report to specified congressional committees on the potential cost and benefits of, and legal, regulatory, and market-based barriers to, developing a secondary market for commercial real estate mortgage loans and loans to small business, including equipment and working capital loans.
Directs the chief executive officer of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) to study and report to the Congress on: (1) the RTC's efforts to standardize its disposition methods; (2) its success in marketing its commercial mortgage loan-backed securities; (3) the impact of its programs on the commercial real estate mortgage loan secondary market; and (4) the impact of its commercial real estate loan securitization program generally.
Subtitle D: Asset Conservation and Deposit Insurance Protection Act of 1992
- Asset Conservation and Deposit Insurance Protection Act of 1992 - Amends CERCLA to limit to the actual benefit conferred by a removal, remedial, or other response action undertaken by another party the liability of an insured depository institution or other lender for the actual or threatened release of petroleum or hazardous substances in connection with property acquired by foreclosure, held in a fiduciary capacity, held by a lessor under the terms of an extension of credit, or subject to financial control or oversight under such terms. Shields an insured depository institution or other lender from liability for such hazards if liability were based solely on: (1) certain security interests; (2) unexercised capacity to influence operations at or on property in which there were security interests; (3) terms, covenants, warranties of an extension of credit relating to compliance with environmental laws; (4) certain actions taken with respect to the property or enforcement of terms of the extension of credit; or (5) certain other actions taken with respect to terms of an extension of credit, including exercise or the declining to exercise of remedies for breach of such terms.
Declares, however, that a depository institution or lender that causes or significantly and materially contributes to the release of petroleum or a hazardous substance may be liable for removal, remedial, or other response action pertaining to that release.
Requires the FDIC to promulgate regulations to require insured depository institutions and other lenders to develop and implement procedures to evaluate environmental risks that may arise from property before making an extension of credit involving a security interest in the property.
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to shield Federal banking and lending agencies from liability under any law imposing strict liability for the actual or threatened release of petroleum or a hazardous substance from property acquired in connection with the exercise of receivership or conservatorship authority, the provision of financial assistance, or receipt of property in a civil or criminal proceeding. Extends such liability limitation to certain subsequent first purchasers of such property. Exempts: (1) such property from any liens for damages associated with actual or threatened petroleum or hazardous substance release; and (2) Federal banking or lending agencies from any law requiring them to grant covenants warranting past or future remediation actions.
Declares that a Federal banking or lending agency that causes or significantly and materially contributes to the release of petroleum or a hazardous substance may be liable for removal, remedial, or other response action pertaining to that release.
Subtitle E: Limitations on Liability
- Declares that, from the enactment of this Act through December 19, 1992, no member of the board of directors of an insured depository institution shall be liable to the institution's shareholders or creditors for acquiescing in or consenting in good faith to: (1) appointment of the RTC or the FDIC as conservator or receiver for that institution; or (2) the acquisition of the institution by a depository institution holding company, or its combination with another insured depository institution, if the appropriate Federal banking agency has requested the institution to be acquired or to combine, and has notified it of grounds for appointing a conservator or receiver.
Amends the Federal Reserve Act to state that a member bank of the Federal Reserve System shall not be required to repay any deposit made at a foreign branch of the bank if the branch cannot repay the deposit due to an act of war, insurrection, or civil strife, or an action by a foreign government or instrumentality (whether de jure or de facto) in the country in which the branch is located, unless the member bank has expressly agreed in writing to repay the deposit under those circumstances. Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to apply the same bank liability limitation to nonmember insured banks. Declares that claims existing before enactment of this Act shall not be affected by this provision.
Amends the International Banking Act of 1978 to apply only to domestic retail deposits the requirement that foreign banks establish U.S. subsidiaries (as opposed to direct branches) to accept or maintain deposits under $100,000 requiring insurance.
Title X: Money Laundering
- Financial Institutions Enforcement Improvements Act -
Subtitle A: Termination of Charters, Insurance, and Offices
- Amends the Revised Statutes, the Home Owners' Loan Act, and the Federal Credit Union Act to prescribe guidelines for the revocation of depository institutions' charters and forfeiture of franchises or organization certificates upon conviction for money laundering or cash transaction reporting offenses (including the conviction of senior level management for such offenses).
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act and the Federal Credit Union Act to prescribe guidelines: (1) for the termination of the insured status of State depository institutions, including State chartered credit unions, convicted of money laundering or cash transaction reporting offenses; and (2) to authorize the removal of any party from office, or its suspension from participation in the affairs of the institution, if the party is determined to have committed certain currency reporting violations.
Amends Federal law to require the Secretary of the Treasury ("Secretary" for this title) to furnish, upon request, State financial institution supervisory agencies with currency transaction reports. Limits the Secretary's authority to require reports on the use of such information by any such State agency for other than supervisory purposes.
Amends the International Banking Act to require the Federal Reserve Board, upon the conviction for money laundering or cash transaction reporting offenses of a foreign bank, its State agency, uninsured State branch, or State commercial lending subsidiary, or any of their directors or senior executive officers, to notify the agency, branch, or subsidiary of its intention to commence franchise termination proceedings.
Subtitle B: Nonbank Financial Institutions and General Provisions
- Amends Federal law regarding money transactions to direct the Secretary to: (1) prescribe regulations requiring each depository institution to file identification reports regarding nonbank financial institution customers that hold accounts in the depository institution; and (2) make such reports available to State financial institution supervisory agencies for supervisory purposes. Sets forth civil penalties for willful violations of such regulations.
Sets forth criminal penalties for any person who knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns part or all of an illegal money transmitting business. Provides for seizure and forfeiture to the United States of any property, including money, used in such a business.
Amends Federal Law to authorize the Secretary to require a class of domestic financial institutions to maintain appropriate procedures to guard against money laundering.
Prohibits financial institutions, their officers, directors, and employees from disclosing the existence of terms of any order for records of certain domestic coin and currency transactions ("targeted currency orders"), except as prescribed.
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to direct the Secretary and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) to jointly prescribe regulations requiring insured depository institutions, businesses that provide check cashing services, money transmitting businesses, and businesses that issue or redeem money orders, travelers' checks or other similar instruments to maintain records of payment orders that will have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings, where wire transfers are used for international transactions. Requires consideration of the effect of such record-keeping on the cost and efficiency of the payment system in the formulation or such regulations. Requires that such records be made available to the Secretary or the Board upon request.
Amends the Right to Financial Privacy Act to permit Federal financial institutions regulatory agencies to provide financial records to the Secretary to investigate money laundering and other financial crimes.
Amends Federal law ("Bank Secrecy Act") to revise the anti-structuring prohibition to include the structuring of transactions designed to evade the customer identification requirements of such Act. Authorizes the Secretary to require nonbank financial institutions to report suspicious transactions relevant to possible violations of law or regulations. Prohibits any such institutions that voluntarily report suspicious transactions from notifying persons involved in a transaction that such a report has been filed. Declares that any such financial institutions not subject to the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 (including officers, employees, and agents) shall not be liable to any person under Federal or State law for voluntarily disclosing possible violations of law or regulations. Authorizes the Secretary to require such financial institutions to carry out anti-money laundering programs with specified features.
Requires the Secretary, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and the Administrator of Drug Enforcement to report to specified congressional committees on the advantages and disadvantages for money laundering enforcement of modifying the color, size, or denominations of U.S. currency.
Requires the Attorney General to report to the Congress on whether the issuance of guidelines for the prosecution of financial institutions would enhance their cooperation with money laundering and bank secrecy laws, criminal referral reporting requirements, and cooperation with law enforcement authorities generally.
Directs the Secretary to establish a team of experts to assist and train foreign governments in developing their expertise in money laundering investigations and prosecutions. Authorizes appropriations.
Requires the President to report annually to the Congress on bilateral and multilateral efforts to meet the U.S. objective of ensuring that other countries adopt comprehensive measures against money laundering and cooperate with each other in investigations, prosecutions, and forfeiture actions. Requires the report to detail the efforts of each major drug-producing and drug transit country to combat narcotics-related money laundering, including instances of noncooperation with the United States in these matters.
Subtitle C: Money Laundering Improvements
- Amends the Federal judicial code to state that a civil forfeiture action or proceeding may be brought in the district court for the district in which any of the money laundering acts or omissions giving rise to the forfeiture occurred, or in any other district where Federal law specifically provides for venue. (Currently, a civil forfeiture action must brought in every district in which the laundered property has been placed.) Grants jurisdiction for such an action or proceeding in any such district or in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia whenever property subject to civil forfeiture is located in a foreign country.
Declares that in any forfeiture action in rem in which the subject property is cash, monetary instruments in bearer form, funds deposited in an account in a financial institution, or other fungible property, it shall not be necessary for the Government to identify the specific property involved in the offense that is that basis for the forfeiture. Declares, also, that it shall not be a defense to such an action that the property involved in the offense has been removed and replaced by identical property. Subjects to forfeiture any identical property found in the same place or account as the property involved in the offense that is the basis for forfeiture. Excepts from forfeiture proceedings in such circumstances funds deposited by a financial institution into an account with another financial institutions when such funds are not directly traceable to the offense, unless the depositing institution knowingly engaged in the offense that is the basis for forfeiture. Applies these provisions retroactively.
Authorizes the Attorney General to issue administrative subpoenas to gather evidence in civil forfeiture investigations related to money laundering or offenses under the Controlled Substances Act.
Declares that any party to an action for forfeiture in money laundering or Controlled Substances Act cases may request the Clerk of the Court in the district in which the forfeiture action is pending to issue a subpoena duces tecum to any financial institution to produce books, records, and any other documents at any place designated by the requesting party.
Repeals provisions of the Crime Control Act of 1990 that limit the ability of the Government to prosecute persons who launder the proceeds of mail and wire fraud schemes.
Makes it a criminal offense to structure financial transactions with the intent of evading certain reporting requirements.
Subjects automobile dealers, pawnbrokers, and precious metal dealers to money laundering statutes.
Includes among financial transactions subject to money laundering statutes the transfer to title to any real property, vehicle, vessel, or aircraft.
Makes it a criminal offense to obstruct a money laundering investigation.
Permits the use of the Assets Forfeiture Fund to pay awards to informants in money laundering cases.
Changes the penalty for money laundering conspiracy from five years imprisonment to whatever the penalty would be for the substantive offense that was the object of the conspiracy.
Amends the Right to Financial Privacy Act to prohibit financial institutions from notifying customers that their account information is the subject of a grand jury subpoena regarding investigations of money laundering offenses or violations of the Controlled Substances Act or the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act.
Applies money laundering and forfeiture laws to the proceeds of foreign bank fraud, kidnapping, robbing and extortion.
Allows the Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Service to dispose of administratively forfeited property.
Adds as money laundering predicate offenses food stamp fraud involving coupons worth over $5,000, theft from the mail, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Amends the Bank Secrecy Act to subject to anti-structuring prohibitions any person willfully causing evasions of the identification requirement regarding cash transactions exceeding $3,000.
Subtitle D: Reports and Miscellaneous
- Directs the Attorney General to study and report to the Congress on the effects: (1) of amending the Right to Financial Privacy Act to allow reimbursement to financial institutions for assembling or providing financial records on corporations and other entities not currently covered by the reimbursement provisions of such Act; and (2) of providing comparable reimbursement to nondepository licensed transmitters of funds for providing the same type of financial records.
Requires the Attorney General, the Secretary, and the head of any other U.S. agency or instrumentality to report to the appropriate Federal banking agency any information about any matter that could have a significant effect on the safety or soundness of any depository institution doing business in the United States. Excepts from this requirement any information received by an agency or instrumentality in connection with a pending grand jury investigation. Prescribes special procedures for the transmittal to Federal banking agencies of any such information relating to intelligence matters or criminal investigations.
Authorizes the Federal Reserve Board, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, to grant limited immunity to witnesses.
Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to declare that Federal bank regulatory agencies do not waive any privilege applicable to information shared with other Federal agencies.
Amends CERCLA to declare that no municipality or other person shall be liable to any person other than the United States for claims of contribution or for other response costs or damages under such Act for acts or omissions related to the generation, transportation, or arrangement for the transportation or treatment, or disposal of municipal solid waste or sewage sludge.
States that in no event shall a municipality incur liability under CERCLA for the acts: (1) of owning or maintaining a public right-of-way over which hazardous substances are transported; or (2) of granting a business license to a private party for the transportation, treatment, or disposal of municipal solid waste or sewage sludge.
Makes generators and transporters of municipal solid waste and sewage sludge, as well as persons who have arranged for the transportation, treatment, or disposal of such waste or sludge, eligible to offer to settle with the President any potential acts or omissions liability of which they have been notified, or for which administrative or judicial actions have been brought against them. Requires such persons to state in writing their ability and willingness to settle it in accordance with CERCLA. Prohibits the President or any other party, upon receipt of such an offer, from taking further administrative or judicial action against the eligible person for relevant acts or omissions addressed in the settlement offer.
Sets forth deadlines for the tendering of settlement offers. Provides for expedited final settlements, limited to a total allocation of all relevant acts or omissions of no more than four percent of total response costs. Authorizes the President to provide a covenant not to sue with respect to the facility concerned to any municipality which has entered into a settlement.
Limits the circumstances in which eligible person may offer to settle such liability for acts or omissions taken 36 months after enactment of this Act. Requires: (1) a municipality, with respect to municipal solid waste, to have been operating a qualified household hazardous waste collection program; and (2) the operator of a publicly owned treatment works, with respect to sewage sludge, to have been operating a qualified publicly owned treatment works.
Applies this Act to all administrative or judicial actions commenced before this Act's effective date, unless a final court judgement has been rendered or a court-approved settlement agreement has been reached.
Subtitle E: Counterfeit Deterrence Act of 1992
- Counterfeit Deterrence Act of 1992 - Amends the Federal criminal code to increase the penalties for each counterfeiting offense from a $5,000 to a $50,000 maximum fine, and from 15 years to 20 years imprisonment. Extends anti-counterfeiting provisions to cover the unauthorized use of electronic methods for the acquisition, recording, retrieval, transmission, or reproduction of any obligation or other security. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a system to ensure the legitimate use of such electronic methods and retention of such reproductions by businesses, hobbyists, the press and other shall not be unduly restricted.
Sets forth criminal penalties for the unauthorized control or possession of any paper or feature or device similar or essentially identical with distinctive paper adopted by the Secretary for U.S. obligations or securities, or with distinctive counterfeit deterrent features or devices, including optically variable devices (such as electro-optical scanners).
Title XI: Limited Partnership Rollup Reform
- Limited Partnership Rollup Reform Act of 1992 - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to revise proxy solicitation rules with respect to limited partnership rollup transactions (in which general partners combine several limited partnerships into one unit that trades on a stock exchange, or a single limited partnership is reorganized so that some or all of the investors receive new securities or securities in another entity).
Requires the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to prescribe proxy rules to: (1) permit dissenting shareholders in a proposed rollup to contact other limited partners before the transaction date for the purpose of determining whether to solicit proxies, consents, or authorizations in opposition to the proposed transaction, without filing soliciting material with the SEC; (2) require the issuer to provide to a shareholder (limited partner) a list of all limited and general partners involved in the proposed rollup; (3) prohibit any general partner from paying directly or indirectly any person providing solicitation services (a broker-dealer) on the basis of whether the solicited proxies, consents or authorizations either approve or disapprove the proposed transaction, or the compensation is contingent on the transaction's approval or completion; (4) require the rollup prospectus to be clear, concise, and understandable and summarize all effects of the proposed transaction, its risks, conflicts of interest, changes in voting rights and ownership interests, dissenters' rights, and other pertinent information; (5) provide that the soliciting material describe in reasonable detail any opinion, appraisal, or report that is prepared by an outside person and materially related to the proposed transition; (6) give each shareholder at least 60 days to review the prospectus; and (7) contain such other provisions as the SEC determines necessary. Authorizes the SEC to grant exemptions from these requirements.
Excludes from the meaning of limited partnership rollup any transaction involving a limited partnership or partnerships having an ongoing operating policy or practice of retaining cash available for distribution and reinvesting proceeds from the sale, financing or refinancing of assets, in accordance with SEC criteria.
Requires the rules of a national securities association to prevent association members from participating in any rollup transaction unless it protects the rights of dissenting limited partners, including: (1) the right to an appraisal and compensation or other rights designed to protect dissenting partners; (2) the right not to have dissenters' voting power unfairly reduced or abridged; (3) the right not to bear the costs of a rejected rollup; and (4) restrictions on the conversion of contingent interests or fees into non-contingent interests or fees and restrictions on the receipt of a non-contingent equity interest in exchange for fees for services which have not been provided.
Requires a national securities exchange to prohibit the listing of any security resulting from a rollup transaction unless such dissenters' rights were provided for.
Requires the rules of a national securities association to prohibit the authorization for quotation on an association-sponsored automated interdealer quotation system of any security the SEC designates as a national market system security resulting from a rollup transaction unless it provides for such dissenters' rights.
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Bill titles: An original bill to improve the regulation of Government-sponsored enterprises.
Links for more info on the vote: congress.gov
