Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015

(Sec. 3) This bill amends the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to authorize the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to subject a bank holding company to enhanced supervision and prudential standards by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System if the FSOC makes a final determination that material financial distress at the bank holding company, or the nature, scope, size, scale, concentration, interconnectedness, or mix of its activities, could threaten the financial stability of the United States. This FSOC determination procedure replaces the current process under which bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more are automatically subject to such enhanced supervision and prudential standards.

The FSOC must make these final determinations using an indicator-based measurement approach established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to determine systemic importance, which considers each bank holding company's size, interconnectedness, available substitutes, global cross-jurisdictional activity, and complexity.

A bank holding company designated, as of this bill's enactment, as a Global Systemically Important Bank (GSIB) by the Financial Stability Board shall be deemed to have been the subject of a final determination that it could pose a threat to U.S. financial stability, thereby making these GSIBs subject to enhanced supervision.

(Sec. 4) The bill revises the Federal Reserve Board's authority over bank holding company acquisition restrictions, prohibitions on interlocks between management of different financial companies, and enhanced supervision and prudential standards to make these requirements subject to FSOC's determination instead of operating automatically when a bank meets a $50 billion threshold.

(Sec. 5) The FSOC is prohibited from making a final determination concerning a bank holding company under this bill before one year after its enactment.

A bank holding company shall be deemed to have been the subject of such a final determination during this one-year period, however, if its total consolidated assets are $50 billion or more.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov