WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) in introducing legislation to provide community banks with regulatory relief as coronavirus continues to negatively impact the economy.

“As we work to combat the spread of coronavirus, we must ensure accounting standards for regional banks have the flexibility they need to serve communities,” said Senator Tillis. “This legislation will provide regulatory relief to these financial institutions and allow them to play an important role in our economic recovery.”

The Community Bank Regulatory Relief Act makes two commonsense changes to ease the regulatory burden on community banks by:

• Lowering the community bank leverage ratio (CBLR), a ratio of capital to unweighted assets developed by federal banking agencies, from 9 percent to 8 percent. This would give community banks extra resources to meet their financial needs during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Delaying the implementation of the cumbersome Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) accounting standards for community banks until December 2024, freeing them to lend more funds to consumers in times of economic stress.

Read the full bill HERE

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