Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Promoting New Bank Formation Act of 2025.
Section 2. Findings
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Trends in bank closures and consolidation have left many communities without access to banking services and disproportionately impact underserved rural and urban communities.
(2) De novo bank formation has slowed significantly following the financial crisis.
(3) A November 2019 report by the Federal Reserve System found that 44 counties in the United States were deeply affected by trends in bank closures and consolidation, meaning that the counties had fewer than 10 branches in 2012 and lost not less than 50 percent of them by 2017.
(4) 89 percent of the deeply affected counties described in paragraph (3) were rural.
(5) Rural counties deeply affected by branch closures had higher poverty rates and lower median incomes, and a higher share of their population were African-American compared to all rural communities.
Section 3. Definitions
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate Federal banking agency; depository institution; depository institution holding company
The terms appropriate Federal banking agency, depository institution, and depository institution holding company have the meanings given those terms in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813).
(2) Community Bank Leverage Ratio
The term Community Bank Leverage Ratio has the meaning given that term under section 201(a) of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. 5371 note).
(3) Financial institution
The term financial institution means a depository institution or depository institution holding company.
(4) Rural community bank
The term rural community bank means a financial institution—
(A) with total consolidated assets of less than $10,000,000,000; and
(B) located in a rural area, as defined in section 1026.35(b)(2)(iv)(A) of title 12, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation.
Section 4. Phase-in of capital standards
The appropriate Federal banking agencies shall issue rules that provide for a 3-year phase-in period for a financial institution to meet any Federal capital requirements that would otherwise be applicable to the financial institution, where the 3-year period begins on the date on which the deposit insurance that the financial institution has obtained from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation becomes effective.
(a) In general
During the 3-year period beginning on the date on which the deposit insurance that the financial institution has obtained from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation becomes effective, a financial institution may request to deviate from a business plan that has been approved by the appropriate Federal banking agency by submitting a request to the agency pursuant to this section.
(b) Review of changes
An appropriate Federal banking agency shall, not later than the end of the 30-day period beginning on the receipt of a request under subsection (a)—
(1) approve, conditionally approve, or deny the request; and
(2) notify the financial institution of the decision and, if the agency denies the request—
(A) provide the financial institution with the reason for the denial; and
(B) suggest changes to the request that, if adopted, would allow the agency to approve the request.
(c) Result of failure To act
If an appropriate Federal banking agency fails to approve or deny a request within the 30-day period required under subsection (b), the request shall be deemed to be approved.
(a) In general
During the 3-year period beginning on the date on which the deposit insurance that a rural community bank has obtained from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation becomes effective, the Community Bank Leverage Ratio for the rural community bank shall be 8 percent.