Banking regulators now must chase growth—alongside safety.
H.R. 6838 — To amend the Federal Credit Union Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, the Revised Statutes, and the Federal Reserve Act to require Federal banking agencies to consider economic growth when conducting supervisory functions. · Filed by Andy Barr (R-KY) · Introduced Dec 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires federal banking regulators—the National Credit Union Administration, FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve—to factor economic growth into their supervisory decisions alongside their existing mandate to ensure bank safety and soundness. It does not remove safety and soundness as a priority, but adds economic growth as an explicit consideration when regulators examine banks, set capital rules, and enforce compliance.
Why we flagged it
The bill does not explicitly repeal safety-and-soundness mandates, but it embeds a competing priority (economic growth) into the supervisory framework of all four major federal banking regulators. This is a soft deregulation strategy: it does not remove rules, but it gives regulators legal cover to deprioritize enforcement when growth concerns arise. The mechanism is structural rather than explicit.
What the text implies
- Regulators now have a statutory defense for looser enforcement: 'we prioritized economic growth.' This creates legal ambiguity in supervisory decisions and may invite litigation from banks challenging enforcement actions as inconsistent with the new mandate.
- The bill does not define 'economic growth' or specify how regulators should weigh it against safety/soundness. This vagueness gives regulators discretion but also creates uncertainty for banks about what conduct will be tolerated.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
commercial banks (reduced supervisory pressure, looser capital/lending standards); credit unions (same supervisory flexibility); bank holding companies (regulatory relief in pursuit of growth)