To prohibit stock sales by senior bank executives in certain circumstances.

On March 9, 2026, Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) introduced HR7887, the Incentivizing Safe and Sound Banking Act. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services and has taken no further action since its introduction. It has zero cosponsors. As with all early-stage bills in the 119th Congress, the legislative path is uncertain and likely requires committee hearings, markup, floor passage in the House, companion legislation in the Senate, and presidential action or veto.

The bill authorizes no spending and appropriates no funds. It imposes a behavioral restriction on senior executives at bank holding companies and banks with more than $50 billion in consolidated assets. Under the bill, if a covered banking institution receives a composite or component CAMELS rating of 3, 4, or 5, or receives an unresolved 'matter requiring immediate attention' (MRIA) supervisory notice, senior executive officers are automatically prohibited from selling any stock they received as compensation until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of the applicable federal banking agency. The FDIC would also gain discretionary authority to impose similar stock sale prohibitions during cease-and-desist proceedings.

This bill does not change any bank's earnings, revenue, capital requirements, lending capacity, or operating structure. It is a governance provision affecting executive compensation liquidity. The six largest U.S. bank holding companies — JPMorgan Chase ($JPM), Bank of America ($BAC), Wells Fargo ($WFC), Citigroup ($C), Goldman Sachs ($GS), and Morgan Stanley ($MS) — all have >$50B in assets and are covered entities. As of April 30, 2026, none of these banks have a publicly known composite CAMELS rating of 3 or above, nor an unresolved MRIA that would trigger the automatic prohibition. The provision only becomes economically relevant if a bank's regulatory standing significantly deteriorates.

Real market data confirms zero market reaction. As of April 30, 2026, JPMorgan closed at $310.24 (30-day change +5.46%), Bank of America at $53.02 (+8.76%), Wells Fargo at $81.47 (+2.34%), Citigroup at $127.97 (+12.84%), Goldman Sachs at $913.68 (+8.00%), and Morgan Stanley at $187.30 (+13.81%). All six stocks are within their 52-week ranges and their 30-day gains are consistent with the broader banking sector rally in early 2026 — not driven by this bill. No event-driven volatility, no abnormal volume, no gap moves on March 9 or any subsequent date.

For this bill to become law, it must pass committee markup, pass the full House, find a Senate companion bill, pass the Senate, and be signed by the President. With a single Democratic sponsor in a divided 119th Congress, and no cosponsors or committee hearings scheduled, passage probability in the current congress is negligible.