Expanding Access to Affordable Credit for Small Businesses Act

“(17) Licensing of lending institutions

“(A) In general—The Administration may license lending institutions to make loans authorized under this subsection.

“(B) Criteria—In authorizing lending institutions under subparagraph (A), the Administrator shall ensure that each such institution—

“(i) provides an independent audit by a third party or internal audit department that examines adherence to all applicable Federal laws and regulations relating to anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions, and financial crimes; and

“(ii) has in place a compliance program that conforms with the requirements described in the “Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual” of the Financial Institutions Examination Council and other applicable Federal anti-money laundering regulatory guidance, including—

“(I) an annual financial crimes risk assessment;

“(II) designation of an individual to serve as an anti-money laundering officer;

“(III) a customer identification program;

“(IV) customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence;

“(V) suspicious activity monitoring and reporting;

“(VI) information sharing;

“(VII) record retention;

“(VIII) sanctions implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control;

“(IX) annual employee training, including general training and job-specific training; and

“(X) monitoring and testing.

“(C) Prohibition on moratorium—The Administrator may not impose a moratorium on the licensing of lending institutions described in subparagraph (A).

“(D) New applicants—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, the Administrator shall begin accepting applications for the licensing of lending institutions.

“(E) Reports—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives a report that includes, with respect to the year preceding the report—

“(i) the number of lending institutions that applied to make loans under this subsection;

“(ii) the number of such lending institutions that the Administrator approved to make loans under this subsection;

“(iii) the reason for any denial of an application of such a lending institution;

“(iv) the number and total amount of loans made by under this subsection by lending institutions; and

“(v) demographic information on the recipients of the loans described in clause (iv).

“(F) Rule of construction—Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to provide authority to the Administrator to regulate small business lending companies, non-Federally regulated lenders, or nondepository lending institutions, or banks.

“(G) Definitions—In this paragraph:

“(i) Bank—The term bank has the meaning given in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.

“(ii) Lending institution—The term lending institution has the meaning given such term by the Administrator and shall include a small business lending company, a non-Federally regulated lender, a nondepository lending institution, or a bank.

“(iii) Non-Federally regulated lender; small business lending company—The terms non-Federally regulated lender and small business lending company have the meanings given, respectively, under section 23.”