Promoting New Bank Formation Act

Capital Standard Relief: De novo depository institutions or their holding companies can use a 3-syear phase-in period to meet Federal capital requirements, starting from the date they become an insured depository institution (Section 2).

Business Plan Flexibility: During the first three years, institutions can request to deviate from their previously approved business plans, providing a process for agencies to approve, conditionally approve, or deny such requests (Section 3).

Automatic Approvals: To ensure efficiency, if a Federal banking agency fails to act on a business plan change request within 30 days, the request is automatically deemed approved (Section 3).

Support for Rural Banks: Rural depository institutions with less than $10,000,000,000 in total consolidated assets can benefit from an 8 percent Community Bank Leverage Ratio, which agencies can phase in gradually over the first two years (Section 4).

Agricultural Loan Access: Federal savings associations are granted authority to provide secured or unsecured loans for agricultural purposes (Section 5).

Increased Understanding of Banking Deserts: The bill requires a study to identify causes for the low number of new institutions and ways to promote them in areas currently underserved by depository institutions (Section 6).