Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who promised credit union leaders a vote on member business lendinglegislation this year, introduced a bill Monday night that would bean early Christmas gift to community banks.

S. 3637 would temporarily extend the Transaction AccountGuarantee, which provides unlimited federal insurance fortransactional account deposits, such as checking accounts used bybusinesses.

Community bank lobbyists have argued that without TAG, largebusiness depositors would move their accounts to big banks underso-called “too big to fail” protections, and take their lending business with them.