Rural Depositories Revitalization Study Act

The bill would direct the three main federal banking agencies to jointly study methods for improving the growth, capital adequacy, and profitability of depository institutions that primarily serve rural areas. The agencies would also have to identify federal statutes and regulations that limit those methods or that block the creation of new (de novo) rural depository institutions. Within one year of enactment, the agencies would have to jointly report their findings and determinations to Congress.

The bill is a study-and-report mandate: it does not itself change any capital rule, lending requirement, or chartering process for rural banks. Any actual policy change would depend on Congress or the agencies acting later based on the report's findings.

Rural depository institutions such as small community banks and credit unions, the federal banking regulators tasked with the study, and rural communities that depend on local banks for lending and deposit services.

The report could surface specific regulatory or statutory barriers that make it harder to start or sustain rural banks, potentially laying groundwork for future legislation or rule changes. In the near term, though, the bill creates no new rights, funding, or requirements for rural banks themselves.

The Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC would need to coordinate jointly to conduct the study and produce a single report, rather than acting separately. They would have one year from enactment to deliver findings to Congress, covering both methods to boost rural bank growth and profitability and any statutes or regulations that limit those methods or block new rural bank charters.