[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7219-7220]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 FINANCIAL CONSUMER HOTLINE ACT OF 2007

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 4332) 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.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4332

       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 2007''.

     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 2007, 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.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
New York (Mrs. Maloney) and the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. 
Biggert) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material 
thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 4332, the Financial Consumers Hotline Act 
of 2008, which has received strong bipartisan support from the 
Financial Services Committee.
  The bill establishes a single toll-free telephone number that 
consumers can call if they have a problem with their bank and want to 
speak to someone who can help them.
  Given that depository institutions in the United States can be 
regulated by any of five Federal regulators or a State regulator, 
consumers often don't know what entity to call if they have a problem 
with their account.
  In a hearing in my subcommittee, the regulators and consumer groups 
testified that customers often end up calling their Attorney General. 
Since State authority over national banks has been preempted by the 
Federal OCC, AGs can't help in this category.
  This legislation builds on a suggestion that Comptroller Dugan put 
forward to provide consumers with a single number to call to get help 
with their banking issues, and we drafted it in close consultation with 
all five regulators.
  As the OCC, the FDIC, and the OTS all testified, this legislation 
will be cost efficient as well as consumer friendly. I should note that 
CBO came out with an estimate last week. The bill would have no 
significant effect on direct spending or revenues. So this legislation 
can help our constituents without spending any money.
  Right now, each of the agencies has a Web site and provides a phone 
number for consumers to call with questions and has a staff to follow 
up on complaints or inquiries, some of which may be unique to their 
responsibilities. For example, the Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corporation has systems in place to respond to consumer inquiries about 
deposit insurance and bank failures.
  This bill would not replace these existing consumer response systems, 
but helps consumers find them. It adds a simple one-stop routing method 
to minimize confusion for consumers who are unclear about where to call 
for help and directs them to the right agency for specialized 
assistance. The establishment of a single toll-free number will help 
encourage greater use of the agency's resources to help their 
consumers.

[[Page 7220]]

  Establishment of a single toll-free number will also assist the 
banking regulators in compiling consumer complaints and inquiries so 
that better information would be available about problems or issues 
that cut across the institutions that the various agencies supervise. 
It would help governments spot developing problems. Congressional 
legislation and oversight would also be better informed by such 
centralized statistics.
  This legislation directs the Federal Financial Institutions 
Examination Council to set up the hotline. The Council is an existing 
interagency body established by statute to prescribe uniform principles 
and standards for financial institutions and to otherwise coordinate 
regulatory activity among the Federal banking regulators. The Federal 
Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, OCC, and OTS are all members of the Council.
  The legislation also directs the Council to work with State banking 
regulators to integrate them into the hotline service. And, the 
Conference of State Bank Supervisors testified that they have already 
started to implement such a plan. The act also requires the Council to 
report to Congress 6 months after enactment on the agency's efforts to 
establish a public interagency Web site, likewise directing and 
referring consumer complaints and inquiries received on the Internet 
concerning any financial institution to the appropriate Federal or 
State financial institution regulatory agency.
  I should note that not only the OCC but the Council as a whole has 
taken some steps in this direction on its own initiative, with an eye 
to both cutting costs and improving service to consumers. Last summer, 
the Council formed a working group to study ways in which the separate 
consumer complaint handling systems of each regulator could be 
streamlined and leveraged to better and more efficiently serve 
consumers.
  With this legislation, we give consumers a statutory mandate and a 
timetable to support and guide these efforts, as well as a framework 
for congressional oversight.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I thank the Chair and the 
ranking member and subcommittee Ranking Member Biggert and many others 
for their help on this legislation. I urge a ``yea'' vote.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would like to thank the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), 
the Chair of the Financial Institution Subcommittee, for her hard work 
on this bill, and I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this bill and urge 
my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, if you are a consumer and you have a complaint or a 
problem of a financial nature, which regulator are you going to call, 
the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the OCC, the CFTC, FTC, OFHEO, HUD, 
Treasury, OTS, NCUA, the SEC? In these challenging times, consumers 
should not have to have a Ph.D. in finance to quickly and easily get in 
touch with the appropriate State and Federal banking regulators.
  Given the complexity of our banking system and the various regulators 
that work in this area, consumers may not know where to turn when they 
have a dispute with their institutions. This legislation creates a 
single hotline that can help steer consumers in the right direction. 
Federal regulators currently have had an informal system in place to 
redirect misplaced consumer complaints, and regulators are constantly 
trying to improve the system. But this bill will ensure that no 
consumer complaint falls through the cracks. Consumers should not have 
to make 12 phone calls to find the right regulator.
  Again, I am pleased that this bill will ensure that consumer 
complaints are heard and that regulators are responsive. I urge my 
colleagues to support the bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4332.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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