Financial Access Protection Act
- Bill Number
- S. 4450
- Origin Chamber
- Senate
- Congress
- 119th Congress, Session 2
- Policy Area
- Finance and Financial Sector
- Status
- Introduced
- Latest Action
- 2026-04-30: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
- Last Updated
- 2026-05-21T21:03:15Z
AI-Generated Summary
Purpose
The Financial Access Protection Act (S. 4450) aims to protect consumers' access to financial services by barring covered financial institutions—such as banks, credit unions, and credit reporting agencies—from collecting, maintaining, or sharing information about a person's citizenship or immigration status.
Key Provisions
- Prohibitions on Financial Institutions:
- Cannot require consumers to disclose citizenship or immigration status to open, maintain, or access accounts or services.
- Cannot request, collect, record, retain, or obtain such information.
- Cannot transmit, report, or disclose it to any federal agency or government entity.
- Prohibitions on Regulators:
- Federal banking agencies (e.g., FDIC, Federal Reserve) cannot require, encourage, or base supervisory actions (like ratings or approvals) on collecting this information.
- Enforcement:
- Federal banking agencies must enforce these rules.
- Exceptions (Rule of Construction):
- Does not affect obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act (laws to combat money laundering and terrorist financing).
- Allows compliance with reporting for preventing financial crimes, sanctions, etc.
- Definitions:
- Covered financial institution: Includes insured banks, credit unions, consumer reporting agencies (e.g., credit bureaus), and their supervised affiliates.
Significant Changes to Existing Law
- Introduces outright bans on collecting or sharing citizenship/immigration status data, overriding other laws except for specified anti-crime exceptions.
- Prevents regulators from indirectly pushing for such data collection via guidance, exams, or ratings— a new limit on agency authority.
Potential Impacts
- Citizens and Consumers: Easier access to banking without immigration checks, potentially benefiting immigrants, non-citizens, and mixed-status families by reducing barriers to accounts and credit.
- Financial Institutions: Limits data practices, which may simplify operations but require system changes to avoid violations.
- Government Agencies: Restricts access to status data from private sources; banking regulators lose tools to encourage collection. No direct impact on international relations.
- Anti-Crime Efforts: Preserves existing tools for money laundering detection, minimizing disruption.
Main Stakeholders Affected
- Consumers: Especially non-citizens, immigrants, and those wary of status disclosure.
- Covered Financial Institutions: Banks, credit unions, credit bureaus, and affiliates.
- Federal Banking Agencies: e.g., FDIC, Federal Reserve, OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency)—tasked with enforcement.
- Law Enforcement: Indirectly affected via preserved Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
Notable Legal, Constitutional, or Political Implications
- Privacy and Equal Access: Strengthens privacy protections and non-discrimination in financial services, aligning with fair lending laws.
- Federalism and Preemption: Overrides state/local rules implicitly; "notwithstanding any other provision of law" asserts strong federal supremacy.
- Tensions with Security Laws: Balances access with national security by carving out exceptions, but could limit immigration enforcement if status data was previously gathered informally.
- Constitutional: May raise due process questions for regulators but supports equal protection by removing status-based barriers. Politically divisive, as it limits tools for verifying legal residency in finance.
This summary was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the official source document for the authoritative text.
Sponsor
Sen. Alsobrooks, Angela D. [D-MD]
Recent Actions
- 2026-04-30: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
- 2026-04-30: Introduced in Senate
Bill Versions
- Financial Access Protection Act — issued 2026-04-30 — PDF (5 pages)