Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation December 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On October 25, 2013, the OCC, Board, FDIC, NCUA, CFPB, and SEC (collectively, the ``Agencies'') published in the Federal Register a joint notice of a proposed interagency policy statement establishing standards for assessing the diversity policies and practices of the entities they regulate.\1\ To allow the public more time to consider the proposed assessment standards, the Agencies have determined that an extension of the comment period to February 7, 2014, is appropriate. This action will allow interested persons additional time to analyze the interagency policy statement and prepare their comments.

The Agencies are proposing to issue jointly an Addendum (Proposed Addendum) to the ``Interagency Policy Statement on Income Tax Allocation in a Holding Company Structure'' (63 FR 64757, Nov. 23, 1998) to ensure that insured depository institutions (IDIs) in a consolidated group maintain an appropriate relationship regarding the payment of taxes and treatment of tax refunds. The Proposed Addendum would instruct IDIs and their holding companies to review their tax allocation agreements to ensure that the agreements expressly acknowledge that the holding company receives a tax refund from a taxing authority as agent for the IDI and are consistent with certain of the requirements of sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act. The Proposed Addendum includes a sample paragraph that IDIs would include in their tax allocation agreements to facilitate the Agencies' instructions.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (``FDIC'') is adopting a final rule (``Final Rule'') to rescind and remove a regulation entitled ``Recordkeeping and Confirmation Requirements for Securities Transactions,'' and to amend another regulation also entitled ``Recordkeeping and Confirmation Requirements for Securities Transactions.'' The rescinded regulation was one of several rules transferred to the FDIC following dissolution of the former Office of Thrift Supervision (``OTS'') in connection with the implementation of applicable provisions of Title III of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act''). The Dodd-Frank Act provided that the former OTS rules that were transferred to the FDIC would be enforceable by or against the FDIC until they were modified, terminated, set aside, or superseded in accordance with applicable law by the FDIC, by any court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law. The FDIC received no comments on the Proposed Rule and consequently is adopting the Final Rule as proposed in the NPR without change. As a result, the recordkeeping and confirmation requirements for securities transactions effected on behalf of customers by all FDIC-supervised institutions will be found at the existing regulation entitled ``Recordkeeping and Confirmation Requirements for Securities Transactions.''.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the FDIC may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the FDIC invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on renewal of its information collection entitled Foreign Branching and Investment by Insured State Nonmember Banks (OMB No. 3064-0125). At the end of the comment period, any comments and recommendations received will be analyzed to determine the extent to which the collections should be modified prior to submission to OMB for review and approval.

Section 165(i) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (``Section 165(i)'') requires the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the ``FDIC'' or ``Corporation'') to issue regulations that mandate FDIC-insured state nonmember banks and FDIC-insured state-chartered savings associations with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion (``covered banks'') to conduct annual stress tests, report the results of such stress tests to the Corporation and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (``Board of Governors''), and publish a summary of the results of the stress tests. On October 15, 2012, the FDIC published in the Federal Register a final rule implementing the requirements of Section 165(i) (the ``Stress Test Rule''). Under the Stress Test Rule covered banks are required to conduct annual stress tests using a minimum of three stress test scenarios (baseline, adverse, and severely adverse) provided by the FDIC. On November 20, 2012, the FDIC published in the Federal Register interim guidance setting forth the general processes and factors to be used by the FDIC in developing and distributing the stress test scenarios. The FDIC is now adopting the interim guidance as final without change, except for two technical corrections.