A 3876

ASSEMBLY, No. 3876
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
�
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman CRAIG J. COUGHLIN
District 19 (Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
���� Requires State-chartered financial institutions to
increase minimum reserve balances by five times amount of previous year's
losses relating to fraud and theft.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.
��
An Act concerning minimum reserve balances for certain
financial institutions and supplementing Title 17 of the Revised Statutes.
���� Be It
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:
���� 1.��� a.� Every financial
institution shall maintain, in addition to any amount of reserve or minimum
capital already required of the institution by law or regulation, a reserve
balance in an amount of at least five times the total value of the thefts,
cyber thefts, fraud, and robberies reported to the institution in the previous
year plus any related damages.
���� b.��� In order to verify that
a financial institution has enough reserve balance to return customers� lost or
stolen money while the institution investigates and recovers the lost or stolen
money, every institution shall conduct an audit of the losses, including those
related to theft, cyber theft, fraud, and robbery, sustained by the institution
during the previous year.� The institution shall annually report the findings
of the audit to the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance, in a manner and by a
date to be determined by the commissioner.
���� c.���� As used in this
section, �financial institution� or �institution� means any bank, savings bank,
savings and loan association, building and loan association, or credit union
organized or doing business under the laws of this State and supervised by the
Commissioner of Banking and Insurance.
���� 2.��� This act shall take
effect one year following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
���� This bill requires
State-chartered financial institutions to maintain, in addition to any amount
of reserve or minimum capital already required of the institution by law or
regulation, a reserve balance in an amount of at least five times the total
value of the thefts, cyber thefts, fraud, and robberies reported to the
institution in the previous year plus any related damages.�
���� In addition, the bill requires
financial institutions to conduct an audit of the losses sustained by the
institution over the previous year and to report the findings of the audit to
the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance.� The purpose of the audit and report
is to verify that each financial institution has enough reserve balance to
return customers� lost or stolen money while the institution investigates and
recovers the lost or stolen money.