[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1455 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1455

To amend the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act to 
    require the Council to establish a single telephone number that 
consumers with complaints or inquiries could call and be routed to the 
 appropriate Federal banking agency or State bank supervisor, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 12, 2009

 Mrs. Maloney (for herself and Mr. Kanjorski) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act to 
    require the Council to establish a single telephone number that 
consumers with complaints or inquiries could call and be routed to the 
 appropriate Federal banking agency or State bank supervisor, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Financial Consumer Hotline Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. CENTRALIZED INTAKE OF CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AND INQUIRIES MADE TO 
              FEDERAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION REGULATORY AGENCIES.

    The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act of 1978 
(12 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 1009A 
the following new section:

``SEC. 1009B. CONSUMER COMPLAINTS AND INQUIRIES.

    ``(a) Single Toll-Free Telephone Number for Consumer Complaints and 
Inquiries.--
            ``(1) Call intake system.--The Federal financial 
        institution regulatory agencies, coordinating through the 
        Council, shall establish a single, toll-free telephone number 
        for consumer complaints and inquiries concerning institutions 
        regulated by such agencies and a system for routing such calls 
        to the Federal financial institution regulatory agency that 
        primarily supervises the financial institution, or that is 
        otherwise the appropriate agency to address the subject of the 
        complaint or inquiry.
            ``(2) Routing calls to states.--To the extent practicable, 
        State agencies may receive appropriate call transfers from the 
        system established under paragraph (1) if--
                    ``(A) the State agency's system has the functional 
                capacity to receive calls routed by the system; and
                    ``(B) the State agency has satisfied any conditions 
                of participation in the system that the Council, 
                coordinating with State agencies through the 
                chairperson of the State Liaison Committee, may 
                establish.
    ``(b) Report to the Congress.--Not later than 6 months after the 
date of the enactment of the Financial Consumer Hotline Act of 2009, 
the Federal financial institution regulatory agencies shall submit a 
report to the Committee on Financial Services of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
Affairs of the Senate describing the agencies' efforts to establish--
            ``(1) a public interagency Web site for directing and 
        referring Internet consumer complaints and inquiries concerning 
        any financial institution to the Federal financial institution 
        regulatory agency that primarily supervises the financial 
        institution, or to the Federal financial institution regulatory 
        agency or State agency that is otherwise the appropriate agency 
        to address the subject of the complaint or inquiry; and
            ``(2) a system to expedite the prompt and effective 
        rerouting of any misdirected consumer complaint or inquiry 
        documents between or among the agencies, with prompt referral 
        of any complaint or inquiry to the appropriate Federal 
        financial institution regulatory agency, and to participating 
        State agencies.''.
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