International Recovery and Financial Stability Act

Summary

International Recovery and Financial Stability Act - Title I: Export-Import Bank Act Amendments of 1983 - Export-Import Bank Act Amendments of 1983 - Amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to extend the authority of the Export-Import Bank of the United States until September 30, 1985. Declares that it is the policy of the United States to insist that participants in the Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits honor their pledge not to offer "tied aid credit" containing a grant element less than the minimum specified in the guidelines. Defines "tied aid credit" to mean credit which is: (1) provided for development aid purposes; (2) financed by public funds or, as a mixed credit, partly from public and partly from private funds; and (3) tied to the purchase of exports from the country granting the credit. Declares that the United States shall try to negotiate an increase in the minimum grant element of tied aid credits. Establishes the Competitive Tied Aid Fund. Requires the money in the Fund to be used to cover a portion of the subsidy contained in any credit granted by the Bank. Permits the Bank to extend such credit only if the Board of Directors and the Secretary of the Treasury determine that: (1) the credit will help U.S. exports competing with exports assisted by foreign official financing in the form of a tied aid credit; (2) the foreign official financing is an abuse of the tied aid credit; and (3) the Secretary of the Treasury determines that the Bank has properly calculated the portion of the subsidy to be covered by money in the fund. Sets forth the criteria for an abuse of tied aid credit. Prohibits the Board from approving tied aid credit unless a portion of its subsidy is covered by funds drawn from the Fund. Requires the Board to report to both Houses of Congress on any approved tied aid credit within 30 days of approving it. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Board to report to Congress if, at the end of any quarter of any fiscal year after FY 1983, the value of the total capital stock and retained earnings of the Bank falls below 50 percent of the capital stock and retained earnings of the Bank at the end of FY 1983. Emphasizes that the Bank's primary policy is to support U.S. exports in all the Bank's programs. Requires the Bank to reserve not less than: (1) six percent of the Bank's new FY 1984 loans and loan guarantees for financing exports by small businesses; and (2) ten percent of the Bank's new FY 1985 loans and loan guarantees for financing exports by small businesses. Requires the Bank to submit its annual report to Congress on January 1 of each year. Requires the report to contain a comprehensive and detailed description of plans for implementing the provisions relating to loans and loan guarantees to small businesses. Requires that the Bank's annual report to the appropriate congressional committees shall be submitted within three months of the end of the reporting period. Requires the President to appoint at least one member of the Bank's Board to represent the interests of small business. Requires the Bank to work to ensure that U.S. companies are afforded an equal opportunity to bid for insurance in connection with transactions assisted by the Bank. Directs the Chairman of the Bank to review the Bank's policy with respect to insurance and to undertake actions to promote equal and nondiscriminatory opportunities to bid for insurance in connection with international trade. Requires the Bank to report by May 15, 1984, to the appropriate congressional committees concerning insurance problems. Increases the number of members of the Bank's Advisory Committee from nine to 12. Requires at least three of those members to be representatives of the small business community. Requires the Committee to meet once each quarter and to submit with the Bank's annual report its comments and suggestions to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations to prepare the U.S. International Trade Commission report on the adverse effect of the Bank's loans and guarantees on domestic industries. Imposes a 60-day deadline for completion of inquiries into purported foreign noncompetitive financing. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to authorize the Bank to issue financing to U.S. sellers who are competing with foreign exporters who have received noncompetitive financing only if: (1) the availability of foreign official noncompetitive financing is likely to be a "significant" (currently "determining") factor in the sale; and (2) such foreign noncompetitive financing has not been withdrawn. Title II: International Economic Recovery - Directs the President to encourage industrialized nations to: (1) take multilateral actions to adopt fiscal policies which will result in sustainable, noninflationary economic growth and increased worldwide employment; (2) develop plans for reducing the financial pressures on certain debt-ridden nations by extending the maturity of such debt; and (3) begin to promote the effectiveness and consistency of the regulation and supervision of international banking. Requires the President to report to Congress on such activities and to include in such report recommendations for legislation. Title III: International Monetary Fund - Amends the Bretton Woods Agreements Act to increase the authorized loans to the International Monetary Fund. Prohibits any representative of the United States from instructing the U.S. Executive Director to the Fund to consent to any amendment to the February 24, 1983, decision of the Fund's Executive Directors if the amendment would significantly alter the terms of U.S. participation in the General Arrangements to Borrow. Authorizes the U.S. Governor of the Fund to consent to an increase in the U.S. quota in the Fund. Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the lack of sufficient information currently available to international lenders threatens the stability of the international monetary system; and (2) the Fund should adopt measures to ensure the availability of more complete and timely financial information. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. Executive Director to the Fund to: (1) initiate relevant discussions with other directors of the Fund and with the Fund management; and (2) propose and vote for certain information collection and publication procedures. Authorizes the President to require persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to provide information to the Fund. Requires the Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees on progress made toward establishing information collection procedures within the Fund. Amends the Special Drawing Rights Act to prohibit any representative of the United States from approving a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights unless Congress authorizes such action. Amends the Bretton Woods Agreements Act to require the U.S. Executive Director to the Fund to oppose any credit drawings on the Fund or any of its facilities by countries which practice apartheid. Requires the U.S. Executive Director to the Fund to present proposals to the Fund's Executive Board that ensure that each member country using Fund resources takes steps to eliminate import restrictions and unfair export subsidies which are inconsistent with international agreements and which have serious adverse impact on any member's exports or employment. Requires the Secretary, if the Fund does not adopt such proposals, to consult with the appropriate congressional committees before instructing the U.S. Executive Director to provide Fund resources for a country which has such import restrictions or unfair export subsidies. Requires the Secretary to be informed of all such restrictions and subsidies implemented by member countries. Directs the Secretary to submit to Congress, within 180 days of enactment of this Act, a report on the policies of the Fund. Sets forth the information to be contained in the report. Requires the U.S. representatives to the Fund to recommend and work for certain changes in Fund policies and decisions to ensure the effectiveness of economic adjustment programs supported by the Fund. Requires the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies to include in its annual report an analysis of the extent to which Fund policies and practices reflect such recommendations. Directs the Secretary to instruct the U.S. Executive Director of the Fund to propose that the Fund adopt these policies with respect to international lending: (1) intensification of the Fund's examination of the trend and volume of external indebtedness of private and public borrowers in a member country when consulting with such country's government on its economic policies; (2) consideration of limiting public sector external short- and long-term borrowing as part of any Fund-approved stabilization program; and (3) publication of the Fund's evaluation of the trend and volume of international lending. Title IV: International Lending Supervision - International Lending Supervision Act of 1983 - Requires each appropriate Federal banking agency to evaluate banking institution foreign country exposure and transfer risk. Requires each such agency to establish examination and supervisory procedures to assure that factors such as foreign country exposure and transfer risk are considered in evaluating the adequacy of the capital of banking institutions. Requires each such agency to require a banking institution to establish and maintain a special reserve whenever the agency determines that: (1) the institution's assets have been impaired by a protracted inability of a foreign country's public or private borrowers to make payments on their external indebtedness; or (2) there is a substantial likelihood that such debt cannot reasonably be expected to be repaid according to its original terms without additional borrowing or a major restructuring. Requires the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to promulgate regulations to account for fees charged by a banking institution in connection with an international loan. Requires each appropriate Federal banking agency to require each banking institution with foreign country exposure to submit, at least four times each year, information regarding that exposure. Requires each such agency to require banking institutions to publish information regarding material foreign country exposure in relation to assets and to capital. Requires the Examination Council and the Federal banking agencies to consult with foreign banking supervisory authorities to reach understandings aimed at achieving the adoption of effective and consistent supervisory policies and practices with respect to international lending. Requires the Examination Council to report to the appropriate congressional committees on the international banking examination and supervisory procedures of certain foreign countries. Requires each appropriate Federal banking agency to establish adequate levels of capital for each category of banking institution. Declares that failure of a banking institution to maintain its established level of capital shall constitute an unsafe and unsound practice within the meaning of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. Requires each such agency to require any banking institution which does not maintain its prescribed capital level to submit and adhere to a plan to achieve its prescribed level. Directs the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and the Secretary of the Treasury to encourage governments, central banks, and regulatory authorities of other major banking countries to work toward maintaining and strengthening the capital bases of banking institutions involved in international lending. Requires the Chairman and the Secretary to report to Congress on the progress in achieving such goal. Prohibits banking institutions from extending more than $1,000,000 in credit to finance a project involving the construction or operation of any mining, processing, or manufacturing facility located outside the United States unless a written economic feasibility evaluation of such foreign project is prepared and approved by a senior official of such institution. Sets forth the factors to be included in the evaluation. Requires such evaluations to be reviewed by the appropriate Federal banking agencies. Sets forth the general authorities of the Examination Council and the appropriate Federal banking agencies. Sets forth penalties for violations of this Act. Requires the Examination Council and the appropriate Federal banking agencies to report to specified congressional committees on actions taken to implement this title. Provides for legislative review and congressional veto of rules and regulations promulgated by the Examination Council or by an appropriate Federal banking agency pursuant to this title. Permits the waiver of such legislative review. Declares that congressional inaction on a rule or regulation shall not be deemed approval of such rule or regulation. Directs the Comptroller General to audit the Examination Council and the appropriate Federal banking agencies but permits the Comptroller General to carry out an onsite examination of an open insured bank or bank holding company only if the appropriate Federal banking agency has consented in writing. Prohibits audits of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve banks from including specified transactions. Prohibits employees of the General Accounting Office from disclosing information identifying an open bank, an open bank holding company, or a customer of a bank or bank holding company. Exempts certain information from such prohibition. Sets forth the method which the Comptroller General shall use in carrying out an audit. Title V: Multilateral Development Banks - Amends the Inter-American Development Bank Act to authorize the U.S. Governor of the Bank to vote for certain pending resolutions which were proposed at a special meeting in February 1983 and which provide for increases in the Bank's authorized capital stock and subscriptions and in the resources for the Fund for Special Operations. Authorizes the U.S. Governor of the Bank, upon adoption of the resolutions, to subscribe to a specified number of shares of the Bank's capital stock and to contribute a specified amount to the Fund for Special Operations. Authorizes appropriations. Declares that it is the policy of the United States that no personnel recommendations for actions regarding the personnel of the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, or the Asian Development Bank shall be based on the political philosophy or activity of the individual under consideration. Amends the Asian Development Bank to authorize the U.S. Governor of the Bank to: (1) subscribe to a specified number of shares of the Bank's capital stock; and (2) contribute a specified amount to the Asian Development Fund. Authorizes appropriations. Amends the African Development Fund Act to authorize the U.S. Governor of the Fund to contribute a specified amount to the Fund. Authorizes appropriations. Amends the International Financial Institutions Act to require the U.S. Government to try to channel multilateral assistance to countries other than those whose governments: (1) engage in a pattern (current law refers to a "consistent" pattern) of gross violations of human rights; or (2) provide refuge to international terrorists. Requires that, within 30 days of the end of each calendar quarter, the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue the quarterly report to Congress on the instances of U.S. opposition to multilateral assistance to a country based on the country's human rights record. Requires the Secretary to conduct a study to be submitted to Congress on how the multilateral development institutions could more actively encourage foreign direct investment and commercial capital flows and channel such investment and capital flows to developing countries for sound and productive development projects through a new investment banking facility at one or more of these institutions. Requires the study to evaluate whether the multilateral institutions could help increase foreign direct investment and commercial capital flows by insuring that the interests of investors and host governments are adequately protected. Directs the Secretary to solicit comments on the study from multilateral development institutions.

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2 official files

• Passed House amended

  summary · EN · 3 August 1983

  Open at official source

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 10 May 1983

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