Federal: AFC Letter of Support for the Main Street Capital Access Act (H.R. 6955)

The Honorable Mike Johnson
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
Minority Leader
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Letter of Support for the Main Street Capital Access Act (H.R. 6955)

Dear Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries:

On behalf of the American Fintech Council (AFC),  I write to express our support for H.R. 6955, the Main Street Capital Access Act (the “Main Street Act”), as it heads to the House floor. AFC appreciates the Financial Services Committee’s continued focus on strengthening the community banking system and advancing a pragmatic legislative agenda that promotes competition, responsible innovation, and a resilient U.S. financial services ecosystem.

A standards-based organization, the American Fintech Council (AFC) is the largest and most diverse trade association representing financial technology (fintech) companies and innovative banks. On behalf of over 150 member companies and partners, AFC promotes a transparent, inclusive, and customer-centric financial system by supporting responsible innovation in financial services and encouraging sound public policy. AFC members foster competition in consumer finance and pioneer products to better serve underserved consumer segments and geographies.

AFC commends Chairman Hill, Subcommittee Chairman Barr, and the honorable members of the Committee for their continued focus on strengthening the community banking system in the United States, and for an unwavering push for policy solutions that prioritize the American consumer. The Main Street Act appropriately aligns with the Committee’s objective of empowering community leaders to focus on serving families, small businesses, and local economies while revitalizing local bank formation and promoting increased affordability for Americans. As AFC wrote in our letter to the Committee in March 2025,  we support this approach because community banks and their role in responsible partnerships with innovative fintech companies play a critical role in meeting modern consumer demand for digital-first services, expanding access to credit and banking products, and ensuring that regulated financial institutions remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market.

We believe the Main Street Act continues to advance these objectives in several important ways. Below, AFC organizes our support for the Main Street Act around the provisions most directly relevant to regulatory tailoring, supervisory clarity, and durable transparency in the federal banking framework. Specifically, AFC focuses on the bill’s reforms to promote proportionate, risk-based regulation; fair and transparent supervision; regulatory accountability and transparency; and responsible innovation in bank–fintech partnerships.

I. Tailoring Regulation to Risk and Modernizing Compliance Expectations

AFC supports the Main Street Act’s focus on considering an institution’s risk profile and business model when issuing new regulations or taking supervisory actions. As outlined in an AFC letter in response to the federal banking regulators, we have advocated for clear and consistent “rules of the road” for industry participants to use when developing innovative products and services or engaging in a bank-fintech partnership.  A central part of this advocacy is pursuing explicit supervisory expectations through agency guidance for products, services, or other activities that operate in a distinct manner within bank-fintech partnerships compared to traditional offerings. Since many of the existing laws and regulations governing the financial services industry were promulgated prior to the development of bank-fintech partnerships as we have defined them in this response, it is incumbent upon the federal banking regulators to review existing regulations and, where necessary, provide additional guidance to industry participants who pursue bank-fintech partnerships.

AFC supports the inclusion of the Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk (TAILOR) Act’s in the Main Street Act because it would require federal financial regulatory agencies to take a disciplined, risk-based approach to rulemaking and supervision, and tailoring regulatory actions to the risk profiles and business models of the institutions subject to oversight and limiting unnecessary compliance burdens that do not advance safety and soundness.  Just as importantly, the TAILOR Act strengthens accountability by requiring agencies to document and report to Congress on the specific steps taken to implement tailoring, including by reviewing and, where appropriate, recalibrating regulations adopted within the last 15 years. The Act’s additional provisions to require an interagency report on modernizing supervision, including examiner workforce and training and potential statutory updates, would help ensure oversight keeps pace with evolving business models while preserving prudential rigor.

II. Advancing Fair and Transparent Supervision

Fair and transparent supervision is a foundational component of a resilient financial system, particularly for community banks and the responsible partners that help them meet consumer demand for secure, digital-first services. AFC supports a supervisory framework that is clear, consistent, and risk-based, where expectations are communicated predictably, examination findings are tied to objective criteria, and institutions have meaningful procedural recourse when good-faith disagreements arise.

In AFC’s March 2025 letter to the Committee on community banking principles, we emphasized the importance of increasing clarity of supervisory expectations for regulated entities engaging in novel or innovative business models and avoiding a patchwork supervisory landscape that can create uncertainty and inadvertently encourage regulatory arbitrage.  Consistent with that approach, the Main Street Act advances several pragmatic reforms that modernize examination practices, promote accountability, and strengthen confidence in the supervisory process for regulators and regulated entities alike. We address several of these reforms below.

AFC has consistently supported the importance of the Fair Audits and Inspections for Regulators’ Exams (FAIR Exams) Act because it recognizes the issues our members experience and delivers pragmatic solutions by increasing the oversight authority of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to ensure clear, consistent, and accountable examination processes across the federal regulatory system.  Further, we support the Act’s establishment of a robust appeals process for legitimate disagreements between financial institutions and their regulators. While regulators are already taking steps to improve examination consistency and internal review, the FAIR Exams Act is important to cement a durable, statutory baseline for fair processes and transparent supervisory determinations. This predictability benefits both regulators and institutions by reducing uncertainty and supporting risk-focused supervision.

AFC also continues to support targeted, risk-based supervisory modifications found within the Supervisory Modifications for Appropriate Risk-based Testing (SMART) Act.  This provision would provide practical regulatory relief by instituting alternating limited-scope examinations and allowing eligible institutions to opt into combining their safety and soundness, information technology, cybersecurity, and consumer compliance exams. By streamlining examination timing and scope for low-risk institutions, the inclusion of the SMART Act preserves rigorous oversight while reducing duplicative processes and unnecessary burden, enabling community banks to focus resources on risk management, compliance execution, and serving consumers and small businesses.

Finally, AFC supports the goal of the Financial Integrity and Regulation Management (FIRM) Act’s reinforcement that supervision should be grounded in objective, risk-based safety-and-soundness considerations, not subjective judgments untethered from measurable financial risk.  The Act directs the Federal banking agencies to study the use of reputational risk in the supervision of depository institutions and, where an agency determines that removing reputational risk as a consideration would not threaten safety and soundness, to eliminate its use in guidance, examination, and enforcement. AFC supports this structured, evidence-based approach to addressing reputational risk, which has too often provided cover for supervisory decisions untethered from an institution's actual financial condition.

III. Facilitating Innovation and Bank-Fintech Partnerships

AFC has consistently advocated for policymakers and regulators to: (1) engage in regulatory modernization that encourages competition and innovation; (2) develop a unified and consistent approach to oversight of bank-fintech partnerships; (3) increase clarity of supervisory expectations for regulated entities engaging in novel or innovative business models; and (4) avoid a patchwork or inconsistent supervisory landscape that can harm consumers and encourage regulatory arbitrage.

Fintech companies arose out of the combination of a dearth of consumer trust in traditional financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and increasing demand for modern, digital-first banking services.  Through partnerships with innovative financial institutions, fintech companies have been able to increase access to historically underserved communities, expand offerings, and create a robust and competitive market that has the ability to mitigate certain types of contagion risks in the financial services industry. As noted in multiple reports by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, responsible fintech providers provide the opportunity for significant consumer and market benefits. Consistent with AFC’s March 31, 2025, letter to the Committee on the “Make Community Banking Great Again” principles, we believe Congress has a timely opportunity to build a pragmatic legislative agenda that strengthens community banks, supports responsible bank-fintech partnerships, and modernizes supervisory frameworks to reflect today’s digital-first financial system.

AFC therefore strongly supports the interagency, evidence-based approach reflected in the Bank-Fintech Partnership Enhancement Act, and we thank Congressman Barr for his leadership and continued focus on modernizing oversight while strengthening community banking. AFC believes requiring an interagency study can help move the policy conversation toward durable “rules of the road” that encourage responsible innovation while reinforcing the distinct roles and responsibilities of regulated depository institutions and their fintech partners. Passage of this legislation would build upon the significant work of both the Committee and the prudential banking regulators to improve the policy landscape for responsible bank-fintech partnerships.

AFC appreciates the Committee’s continued focus on strengthening community banking and ensuring that U.S. regulatory frameworks keep pace with technology-driven change. This legislation is a pragmatic step that can help ground policymaking in facts about how partnerships impact community bank health, competition, and consumer outcomes, while identifying specific, actionable reforms to improve clarity and consistency across the federal banking agencies.

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AFC appreciates your leadership on these issues and stands ready to serve as a resource to Congress as it continues to advance policies that make community banking stronger and more resilient.

Sincerely,

Ian P. Moloney

Chief Policy Officer
American Fintech Council

CC:

The Honorable French Hill, House Committee on Financial Services
The Honorable Maxine Waters, House Committee on Financial Services
The Honorable Andy Barr, House Committee on Financial Services
The Honorable Barry Loudermilk, House Committee on Financial Services
The Honorable Bill Foster, House Committee on Financial Services

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