Description:
Under current law, banks and credit unions are required to have a Customer Identification Program (CIP) to verify the identity of new customers prior to opening an account. H.R. 3968 would direct the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Department of the Treasury, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to issue updated guidance clarifying that an identification card issued by a municipality may be used to verify the identity of a customer under the CIP. The operating costs for the FDIC, NCUA, and OCC are classified in the federal budget as direct spending. Using information from some of those agencies, CBO estimates that issuing updated guidance would increase gross direct spending at those agencies by less than $500,000 over the 2022-2031 period. Moreover, the NCUA and OCC collect fees from financial institutions to offset their operating costs; those fees are treated as reductions in direct spending. In total, CBO estimates that the net effect on direct spending would be insignificant over that period. Costs incurred by the Federal Reserve reduce remittances to the Treasury, which are recorded in the budget as revenues. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3968 would decrease revenues by less than $500,000 over the 2022-2031 period.
