#2022-30, November 18, 2022

2022 Midterm Elections Update – House and Senate Control

Earlier this week, vote counting, and race calls decided control of the United States Congress in the House.  Republicans are expected to hold a majority of the seats in the House once all races are certified.  It remains unclear who the Speaker will be, but Kevin McCarthy (R – CA) is the clear frontrunner after several years as Minority Leader in the Republican delegation.  Current House Speaker Pelosi (D – CA) also announced this week she will be stepping down from leadership in the Democratic party, and Hakeem Jeffries (D – NY) has announced his intention to run for Minority Leader within the party.

Amongst the Massachusetts delegation, Katherine Clark, Representative for Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District, also announced her intention to run for Democratic Minority Whip, a critical leadership position.

The United States Senate majority in 2023 will be held by the Democratic party, but the total number of seats remains unclear.  Democrats will hold a minimum of 50 seats in 2023, and a runoff in Georgia will determine if the majority is 51-49 or a 50-50 split.  This difference is quite important as a 51-seat majority would provide Democrats with further political power in the form of committee control, subpoenas, and judicial confirmations.

From the financial services perspective, Representative Patrick McHenry (R – NC) will chair the House Financial Services Committee for the 118th Congress.  We project that current Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D – OH) will remain the top Democrat, and Senator Scott (R – SC) should serve as ranking member for the minority.

To read more about the midterm elections, please click here.

Re-Presentment Remains in the News

Republican representatives in the Congress are taking note of recent developments in Re-Presentment and re-presented transactions.  Representative French Hill (R – AR) wrote to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on supervisory practices related to re-presented transactions.  Representative Hill raised concerns that the FDIC has “in essence… establish(ed) new disclosure standards for Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fees without warning and without rulemaking.

The full letter can be read by clicking here.

Relatedly, the FDIC continues to scrutinize banks that charge multiple NSF fees on these items, and we wish to point out that the American Bankers Association (ABA) has updated its staff analysis on Re-Presented Transactions to include analysis of the Financial Institution Letter (FIL) from August 2022 and recent observations ABA received from member banks regarding examinations.

As previously reported, the Association discussed the FDIC FIL in its Friday, August 19th Washington Update.  To read more about the FIL, please click here.  ABA members can read the staff analysis by clicking here.