[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1984 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1984

  To amend title 31, United States Code, to allow States to certify a 
   business as legitimate for purposes of a financial institution's 
  suspicious activity reporting requirements, facilitate unambiguous 
 compliance of such businesses with State law, and provide regulatory 
                   relief for financial institutions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 25, 2011

     Mr. Polis (for himself, Mr. Stark, Mr. Paul, and Mr. Frank of 
Massachusetts) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 31, United States Code, to allow States to certify a 
   business as legitimate for purposes of a financial institution's 
  suspicious activity reporting requirements, facilitate unambiguous 
 compliance of such businesses with State law, and provide regulatory 
                   relief for financial institutions.

    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 ``Small Business Banking Improvement 
Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. CERTIFICATION AND EXCEPTION.

    Section 5318(g) of title 31, United States Code, is amended by 
adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(5) Exception.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Notwithstanding paragraph (1), 
                the Secretary may not require any financial institution 
                or any director, officer, employee, or agent of any 
                financial institution to report any suspicious 
                transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or 
                regulation where a person involved in such transaction 
                is a legitimate business.
                    ``(B) Certification.--
                            ``(i) In general.--For purposes of this 
                        paragraph, a person is a legitimate business if 
                        the governor of each State in which such person 
                        does business has certified to the Secretary 
                        that--
                                    ``(I) such person is a business 
                                engaged in activities that are 
                                currently legal under State law; and
                                    ``(II) the State has an interest in 
                                such person receiving the exemption 
                                described under subparagraph (A).
                            ``(ii) Notice.--The Secretary shall 
                        maintain a public website with a list of all 
                        persons that are a legitimate business for 
                        purposes of this paragraph.''.
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