H.R. 3709 — Advancing the Mentor-Protégé Program for Small Financial Institutions Act

This section establishes the Financial Agent Mentor-Protégé Program under which a financial agent designated by the Secretary of the Treasury or a large financial institution (i.e., any entity regulated by the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, or the NCUA with total consolidated assets of at least $50 billion) may serve as a mentor to a small financial institution. The program allows the small financial institution (defined as any regulated entity with total consolidated assets of $2 billion or less, a minority depository institution, or a rural depository institution with assets under $10 billion located in a rural area) either to prepare to perform as a financial agent or to improve its capacity to serve its own customers. The Secretary must hold at least one outreach event annually to promote participation, issue guidance or regulations to exclude entities from the program, and submit an annual report to Congress detailing the number of participating financial agents, large and small institutions, and outreach events held. The section and the amendments made by it take effect 90 days after the date of enactment.