Sec. 8. Fair access to financial services
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In this section: The term bank — means an entity for which the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is the appropriate Federal banking agency, as defined in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act ( 12 U.S.C. 1813 ); and includes— member banks; non-member banks; covered credit unions; State-chartered non-member banks; and trust companies. The term covered bank means a bank that has the ability to— raise the price a person has to pay to obtain an offered financial service from the bank or from a competitor; or significantly impede a person, or the business activities of a person, in favor of or to the advantage of another person.
A bank shall not be presumed to be a covered bank if the bank has less than $10,000,000,000 in total assets. A bank is presumed to be a covered bank if the bank has $10,000,000,000 or more in total assets. A bank that meets the criteria under subclause
(I)can seek to rebut this presumption by submitting to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency written materials that, in the judgement of the agency, demonstrate the bank does not meet the definition of covered bank. The term covered credit union means— any insured credit union, as defined in section 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act ( 12 U.S.C. 1752 ); or any credit union that is eligible to make application to become an insured credit union under section 201 of the Federal Credit Union Act ( 12 U.S.C. 1781 ). The term deny means to deny or refuse to enter into or terminate an existing financial services relationship with a person. The term fair access to financial services means persons engaged in activities lawful under Federal law are able to obtain financial services at banks without impediments caused by a prejudice against or dislike for a person or the business of the customer, products or services sold by the person, or favoritism for market alternatives to the business of the person. The term financial service means a financial product or service, including— commercial and merchant banking; lending; financing; leasing; cash, asset, and investment management and advisory services; credit card services; payment processing; security and foreign exchange trading and brokerage services; and insurance products. The term member bank has the meaning given the term in the third undesignated paragraph of the first section of the Federal Reserve Act ( 12 U.S.C. 221 ). The term person — means— any natural person; or any partnership, corporation, or other business or legal entity; and includes a customer. To provide fair access to financial services, a covered bank, including a subsidiary of a covered bank, shall, except as necessary to comply with another provision of law— make each financial service the covered bank offers available to all persons in the geographic market served by the covered bank on proportionally equal terms; not deny any person a financial service the covered bank offers unless the denial is justified by such quantified and documented failure of the person to meet quantitative, impartial risk-based standards established in advance by the covered bank; not deny, in coordination with or at the request of others, any person a financial service the covered bank offers; and when denying any person financial services the covered bank offers, provide written justification to the person explaining the basis for the denial, including any specific laws or regulations the covered bank believes are being violated by the person or customer. A justification described in paragraph (1)(D) may not be based solely on the reputational risk to the covered bank. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person may commence a civil action in the appropriate district court of the United States against any covered bank or covered credit union that violates or fails to comply with the requirements under this section, for harm that person suffered as a result of such violation. It shall not be necessary for a person to exhaust its administrative remedies before commencing a civil action under this section. If a person prevails in a civil action under this section, a court shall award the person— reasonable attorney’s fees and costs; and treble damages.
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