The New BANK Act of 2025 mandates annual public reports from key federal financial regulators detailing application statistics, approval times, and denial reasons for various bank, credit union, and holding company charters.
Barry Loudermilk
Representative
GA-11
The New BANK Act of 2025 mandates that key federal financial regulators, including the OCC, NCUA, Federal Reserve, and FDIC, publish detailed annual reports on their charter and holding company application processes. These reports will standardize the disclosure of application volumes, approval times, and common reasons for denial across national banks, federal credit unions, and holding companies. The legislation also requires a joint report on state-level financial institution charter applications.
New BANK Act of 2025 Demands Transparency on Why New Banks and Credit Unions Get Stuck in Regulatory Limbo
If you have ever wondered why it seems like only a handful of massive banks dominate the landscape, or why your local community group is struggling to start a new credit union, the New BANK Act of 2025 wants to show you the receipts. This bill requires the heavy hitters of financial regulation—the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Comptroller of the Currency—to stop keeping their application data behind closed doors. Starting soon, they will have to publish annual reports detailing exactly how many new bank and credit union applications they received, how many they rejected, and how many simply gave up and withdrew. It is essentially a performance review for the gatekeepers of the American financial system.
Opening the Books on the Approval Process
Under Sections 2 through 5, the bill forces regulators to track the 'mean and median' time it takes to get an application from a pile of paperwork to a functioning bank. This matters to anyone who has ever complained about a lack of competition in their local banking market. For a group of entrepreneurs or a local community trying to start a new federal credit union (Section 3), time is literally money. If the data shows it takes years to get a 'yes' or 'no,' it explains why small players are being squeezed out by the big guys who have the legal teams to wait out the clock. By requiring the FDIC and the Fed to disclose the most common reasons for denials or withdrawals (Section 5), the bill gives future small business owners a roadmap of the pitfalls to avoid before they sink their life savings into a charter application.
Tracking the Local Impact
Section 6 takes this a step further by looking at what is happening at the state level. The Federal Reserve and the FDIC will have to work with state regulators to report on state-chartered banks and credit unions for every single state and territory. For someone managing a construction firm or a retail shop in a rural area, this data could highlight why their state is a 'banking desert' compared to a neighbor. By breaking down the numbers state-by-state, the bill makes it easier to see if certain regions are being ignored or if local regulations are making it impossible for new financial institutions to take root. It is a data-driven approach to understanding why your options for where to keep your paycheck are as limited as they are.