S. 4450 — Financial Access Protection Act

This section defines terms used in the Act, including "appropriate Federal banking agency," "insured depository institution" (as defined in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act), "Bank Secrecy Act" (as defined in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020), "consumer reporting agency" (as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act), and "insured credit union" (as defined in the Federal Credit Union Act). It further defines "covered financial institution" to include (A) an insured depository institution; (B) an insured credit union or any credit union regulated by the National Credit Union Administration; (C) a consumer reporting agency; (D) a national bank or Federal savings association supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; (E) a State member bank supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; (F) a State nonmember bank supervised by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; (G) a bank holding company or savings and loan holding company supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and (H) a subsidiary or affiliate thereof subject to examination or supervision by a Federal banking agency.

This section prohibits covered financial institutions from (1) requiring consumers to disclose citizenship or immigration status as a condition of opening, maintaining, or accessing an account or financial service; (2) requesting, collecting, recording, retaining, maintaining, or obtaining such information; or (3) transmitting, reporting, disclosing, or making available such information to any federal agency or governmental entity. It further prohibits appropriate Federal banking agencies from requiring or encouraging covered financial institutions to collect or maintain such information or from conditioning supervisory ratings, enforcement decisions, approvals, or other regulatory determinations thereon and directs such agencies to enforce these prohibitions. The prohibitions do not alter obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act or prevent compliance with federal, state, or local reporting requirements to prevent financial crimes (e.g., money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions compliance).