§9622 Terms and Conditions

Summary

Requires the Corporation to set rules for loans, guarantees, fees, interest, and protections when it supports projects under this subchapter. The Corporation may only help when needed to fix a credit market problem or to meet specific U.S. development or foreign policy goals, decided case by case. Loan length cannot be longer than 25 years or the project’s ability to pay, whichever is shorter. For any loan guarantee, project parties must face at least 20 percent of the guarantee amount in potential loss, though the Corporation may work with the President to ease rules so it can guarantee up to 100 percent if parties still carry 20 percent of the guarantee. Loans or guarantees can only be made if the borrower or lender is responsible and the loan has reasonable servicing to protect U.S. financial interests. Interest rates and supplements must follow a market benchmark like Treasury yields and be set with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Secretary of the Treasury; the Corporation must set minimum rates and update them as benchmarks change. Fees must be set to minimize cost to the government while meeting program goals and reviewed regularly. A Corporation guaranty is treated as proof it was properly obtained and the loan qualified and is presumed valid unless the guaranty holder committed fraud or made a material misstatement. The Corporation must use clear standards to assess credit risk and the development or strategic value of projects, give only the needed support, and provide loans on a senior or equal (pari passu) basis with other senior debt unless there is a strong policy reason not to. The Corporation may not make loans or guarantees unless Congress provides budget authority in an appropriations Act in advance, as required by section 661c of title 2. When the Corporation backs lending through intermediaries, it must follow industry best practices and create truth-in-lending rules for secondary lending. Those rules and related policies must be reported to the appropriate committees within 180 days of December 18, 2025, with annual updates as needed. The rules must protect vulnerable microborrowers, avoid overly punitive penalties, include safeguards against usurious or abusive lending, require clear borrower disclosures (rights and obligations, material loan terms and tenure, default procedures and penalties, privacy and data protection, and other material information), and require audits of intermediary lending with summaries included in each annual report to Congress required under the truth-in-lending reporting requirement.