Nullifying Biden’s Burdensome Bank Merger Rule

In September 2024, the Biden Administration published an Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rule to amend the Bank Merger Act of 1986, adding bureaucratic hurdles and complicating the bank merger approval process by removing the expedited review process and streamlined applications for smaller, well-capitalized institutions.

This Biden-era regulation imposed burdensome red tape on the bank merger approval process through convoluted new standards, making it more difficult for banks of all sizes, particularly community and regional banks, to merge and compete – threatening access to financial services for hardworking Americans.

Let’s not try to fix a problem that didn’t exist – increasing bureaucracy only makes things harder on American businesses and taxpayers. House Republicans are bringing legislation to prevent future administrations from implementing similar onerous regulations like the Biden OCC rule.

S.J. Res 13, introduced by Sen. John Kennedy, overturns the Biden OCC’s burdensome “Business Combinations Under the Bank Merger Act” final rule that ends automatic approvals under the expedited review procedure and gets rid of streamlined applications, ensuring consistent, transparent standards of evaluation for merger applications.

House Republicans are fighting to restore regulatory sanity in Washington and support growth and innovation.