H.R. 2423

Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act

This bill specifies that the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) is the sole regulator of the Farm Credit System (FCS) and establishes reporting requirements for FCS institutions.

Specifically, the bill states that the FCA is the sole and independent regulator of the FCS and exempts entities that are supervised by the FCA from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

(The bill addresses a proposed rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] that would implement provisions of the ECOA by requiring covered financial institutions, including FCS lenders, to collect and report to the CFPB data on credit applications for small businesses, including the principal owner's race, sex, and ethnicity.)

The bill also requires FCS institutions to (1) request that loan applicants and borrowers that are small farmers disclose information identifying their race, sex, and ethnicity; and (2) annually report the collected information to the FCA. If an FCS institution customer does not voluntarily report the requested information, the FCA may not require the institution to use other means to deduce the information.