[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3709 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3709

     To require a Government Accountability Office examination of 
   transactions between large financial institutions and the Federal 
                  Government, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 21, 2012

Mr. Vitter (for himself and Mr. Brown of Ohio) introduced the following 
                                  bill

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To require a Government Accountability Office examination of 
   transactions between large financial institutions and the Federal 
                  Government, 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. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE EXAMINATION OF TRANSACTIONS 
              BETWEEN LARGE FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND THE FEDERAL 
              GOVERNMENT.

    (a) Definitions.--For purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``covered institution'' means any financial 
        company having more than $500,000,000,000 in consolidated 
        assets; and
            (2) the term ``economic benefit'' means the difference 
        between actual loans terms offered, debt or equity prices, or 
        asset values and a reasonable estimate of what such terms, 
        prices, or values might have been, as determined by examining 
        actual values of comparable transaction in the private markets 
        or by estimating the values of comparable transactions priced 
        to properly reflect associated risk.
    (b) GAO Examination.--The Comptroller General of the United States 
(in this section referred to as the ``Comptroller'') shall conduct an 
examination of covered institutions, such as--
            (1) the favorable pricing of the debt of such institutions, 
        relative to their risk profile resulting from the perception 
        that such institutions will receive Government support in the 
        event of any financial stress;
            (2) any favorable funding or economic treatment resulting 
        from an increase in the credit rating for covered institutions, 
        as a result of express, implied, or perceived Government 
        support;
            (3) any economic benefit to covered institutions resulting 
        from the ownership of, or affiliation with, an insured 
        depository institution;
            (4) any economic benefit resulting from the status of 
        covered institutions as a bank holding company, including 
        access to Federal deposit insurance and the discount window of 
        the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System before the 
        date of enactment of this Act;
            (5) any economic benefit received through extraordinary 
        Government actions taken, such as--
                    (A) actions by the Department of the Treasury--
                            (i) under the Emergency Economic 
                        Stabilization Act, such as--
                                    (I) asset purchases by the United 
                                States Government;
                                    (II) capital injections from the 
                                United States Government; or
                                    (III) housing programs;
                            (ii) by the purchase of the mortgage backed 
                        securities of the Federal National Mortgage 
                        Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage 
                        Corporation (in this Act referred to as 
                        ``government-sponsored enterprises''), in order 
                        to lower interest rates, and the value of such 
                        securities in the absence of such purchases; or
                            (iii) by the guarantee of money market 
                        mutual funds, as compared to the value of such 
                        funds in the absence of such guarantees;
                    (B) actions by the Board of Governors of the 
                Federal Reserve System prior to the date of enactment 
                of this Act, such as--
                            (i) reducing the Federal funds rate;
                            (ii) lowering the interest rate charged to 
                        banks for loans through its discount window and 
                        expanding the list of securities that banks 
                        could post in exchange for loans through the 
                        discount window, as compared to loans using 
                        terms and collateral under normal discount 
                        window lending conditions;
                            (iii) providing loans to financial 
                        institutions through the Term Auction Facility; 
                        and
                            (iv) assistance through programs under 
                        section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act prior 
                        to the date of enactment of this Act, such as--
                                    (I) lending through the Commercial 
                                Paper Funding Facility;
                                    (II) securities lending to primary 
                                dealers through the Primary Dealer 
                                Credit Facility and the Term Securities 
                                Lending Facility;
                                    (III) lending to institutions 
                                through the Asset-Backed Commercial 
                                Paper Money Market Mutual Fund 
                                Liquidity Facility;
                                    (IV) lending to institutions 
                                through the Term Asset-Backed 
                                Securities Loan Facility;
                                    (V) purchasing assets through the 
                                Maiden Lane facility; or
                                    (VI) any other asset purchases, 
                                including mortgage-backed securities 
                                backed by the government-sponsored 
                                enterprises, and debt issued by those 
                                enterprises; and
                    (C) actions by the Federal Deposit Insurance 
                Corporation, such as--
                            (i) guaranteeing debt or deposits through 
                        the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program;
                            (ii) guaranteeing deposits through the 
                        Deposit Insurance Fund; or
                            (iii) pricing of assessments related to any 
                        such guarantees; and
            (6) any extraordinary assistance provided to American 
        Insurance Group, but ultimately received by one of the covered 
        institutions; and
            (7) any Government actions that resulted in the payment or 
        nonpayment of credit default swap contracts entered into by a 
        covered institution.

SEC. 2. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller shall submit a report to Congress detailing the findings of 
the Comptroller in the study conducted under this Act. Such report 
shall be made electronically available to the public.
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