Dodd-Frank Act - Title XI: Federal Reserve System Provisions

The Board shall establish, by regulation, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the policies and procedures governing emergency lending under this paragraph. Such policies and procedures shall be designed to ensure that any emergency lending program or facility is for the purpose of providing liquidity to the financial system, and not to aid a failing financial company, and that the security for emergency loans is sufficient to protect taxpayers from losses and that any such program is terminated in a timely and orderly fashion. The policies and procedures established by the Board shall require that a Federal reserve bank assign, consistent with sound risk management practices and to ensure protection for the taxpayer, a lendable value to all collateral for a loan executed by a Federal reserve bank .

The Board shall establish procedures to prohibit borrowing from programs and facilities by borrowers that are insolvent. Such procedures may include a certification from the chief executive officer (or other authorized officer) of the borrower, at the time the borrower initially borrows under the program or facility (with a duty by the borrower to update the certification if the information in the certification materially changes), that the borrower is not insolvent.

A borrower shall be considered insolvent, if the borrower is in bankruptcy, resolution under title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or any other Federal or State insolvency proceeding.

A program or facility that is structured to remove assets from the balance sheet of a single and specific company, or that is established for the purpose of assisting a single and specific company avoid bankruptcy, resolution under title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or any other Federal or State insolvency proceeding, shall not be considered a program or facility with broad-based eligibility.

The Board may not establish any program or facility under this paragraph without the prior approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.

The Board shall provide to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives:

• not later than 7 days after the Board authorizes any loan or other financial assistance, a report that includes:

• the justification for the exercise of authority to provide such assistance

• the identity of the recipients of such assistance

• the date and amount of the assistance, and form in which the assistance was provided;

• the material terms of the assistance, including:

  • duration;
  • collateral pledged and the value thereof
  • all interest, fees, and other revenue or items of value to be received in exchange
  • for the assistance
  • any requirements imposed on the recipient with respect to employee compensation,
  • distribution of dividends, or any other corporate decision in exchange for the assistance;

• the value of collateral;

• the amount of interest, fees, and other revenue or items of value received in exchange

• for the assistance

• the expected or final cost to the taxpayers of such assistance.

The information required to be submitted to Congress related to:

• the identity of the participants in an emergency lending program or facility
• the amounts borrowed by each participant in any such program or facility;
• identifying details concerning the assets
• collateral held by, under, or in connection with such a program or facility, shall be kept confidential.

If an entity to which a Federal reserve bank has provided a loan  becomes a covered financial company, as defined in section 201 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, at any time while such loan is outstanding, and the Federal reserve bank incurs a realized net loss on the loan, then the Federal reserve bank shall have a claim equal to the amount of the net realized loss against the covered entity, with the same priority as an obligation to the Secretary of the Treasury .

Audits of Special Federal Reserve Credit Facilities

Auditing and oversight of certain functions of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or any Federal reserve bank, the Comptroller General of the United States may conduct audits, including onsite examinations, of the Board of Governors, a Federal reserve bank, or a credit facility, if the Comptroller General determines that such audits are appropriate, solely for the purposes of assessing, with respect to a credit facility or a covered transaction:

• the operational integrity, accounting, financial reporting, and internal controls governing the credit facility
• or covered transaction
• the effectiveness of the security and collateral policies established for the facility or covered transaction
• in mitigating risk to the relevant Federal reserve bank and taxpayers
• whether the credit facility or the conduct of a covered transaction inappropriately favors one or more specific participants over other institutions eligible to utilize the facility
• the policies governing the use, selection, or payment of third-party contractors by or for any credit facility
• or to conduct any covered transaction.

Reports and Delayed Disclosure.

The report under subparagraph shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusions of the Comptroller General with respect to the matters that were audited and are the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action relating to such matters as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.

The Comptroller General shall not disclose to any person or entity, including to Congress, the names or identifying details of specific participants in any credit facility or covered transaction, the amounts borrowed by or transferred by or to specific participants in any credit facility or covered transaction, or identifying details regarding assets or collateral held or transferred by, under, or in connection with any credit facility or covered transaction.

Delayed Release

The nondisclosure obligation will expire with respect to any participant on the date on which the Board of Governors, directly or through a Federal reserve bank, publicly discloses the identity of the subject participant or the identifying details of the subject assets, collateral, or transaction.

Public Access to Information: The Board shall place on its home Internet website, a link entitled ‘Audit’, which shall link to a webpage that shall serve as a repository of information made available to the public for a reasonable period

• the reports prepared by the Comptroller General
• the annual financial statements prepared by an independent auditor for the Board
• the reports to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate
• such other information as the Board reasonably believes is necessary or helpful to the public in understanding the accounting, financial reporting, and internal controls of the Board and the Federal reserve banks.

Federal Reserve Transparency and Release of Information

In order to ensure the disclosure in a timely manner consistent with the purposes of this Act of information concerning the borrowers and counterparties participating in emergency credit facilities, discount window lending programs, and open market operations authorized or conducted by the Board or a Federal reserve bank, the Board of Governors shall disclose:

• the names and identifying details of each borrower, participant, or counterparty in any credit facility or covered transaction;
• the amount borrowed by or transferred by or to a specific borrower, participant, or counterparty in any credit facility or covered transaction
• the interest rate or discount paid by each borrower, participant, or counterparty in any credit facility or covered transaction
• information identifying the types and amounts of collateral pledged or assets transferred in connection with participation in any credit facility or covered transaction.

Emergency Financial Stabilization

The President may transmit to Congress a written report on the plan of the Corporation to exercise the authority under this section to issue guarantees up to that maximum amount and a request for approval of such plan. The Corporation shall exercise the authority under this section to issue guarantees up to that specified maximum amount upon passage of the joint resolution of approval.

Additional Debts Guarantee Authority

If the Secretary says that the maximum guarantee amount should be raised, and the Council concurs with that determination, the President may transmit to Congress a written report on the plan of the Corporation to exercise the authority under this section to issue guarantees up to the increased maximum debt guarantee amount. The Corporation shall exercise the authority under this section to issue guarantees up to that specified maximum amount upon passage of the joint resolution of approval.

Audit of Federal Reserve Bank Governance

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall complete an audit of the governance of the Federal reserve bank system.The audit required  will  examine the extent to which the current system of appointing Federal reserve bank directors effectively represents ‘‘the public, without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex or national origin, and with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers’’ in the selection of bank directors. The audit will examine whether there are actual or potential conflicts of interest created when the directors of Federal reserve banks, which execute the supervisory functions of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, are elected by member banks examine the establishment and operations of each facility. The audit would aim to identify changes to selection procedures for Federal Reserve Bank directors, or to other aspects of Federal Reserve Bank governance, that would:

• improve how the public is represented;
• eliminate actual or potential conflicts of interest in bank supervision;
• increase the availability of information useful for the formation and execution of monetary
• policy
• in other ways increase the effectiveness or efficiency of reserve banks.

Publication of Board Action

The Board of Governors shall publish on its website, not later than December 1, 2010, with respect to all loans and other financial assistance provided during the period beginning on December 1, 2007 and ending on the date of enactment of this Act under the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Term Securities Lending Facility, the Term Auction Facility, Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, Maiden Lane III, the agency Mortgage-Backed Securities program, foreign currency liquidity swap lines, and any other program) of the Federal Reserve Act:

• the identity of each business, individual, entity, or foreign central bank to which the Board of Governors or a Federal reserve bank has provided such assistance;
• the type of financial assistance provided to that business, individual, entity, or foreign central bank;
• the value or amount of that financial assistance;
• the date on which the financial assistance was provided;
• the specific terms of any repayment expected, including
• the repayment time period, interest charges, collateral, limitations on executive compensation or dividends, and other material terms; and
• the specific rationale for each such facility or program.