Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (collectively, the agencies) are reopening the comment period for the notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2019, to amend the agencies' regulations that require swap dealers and security- based swap dealers under the agencies' respective jurisdictions to exchange margin with their counterparties for swaps that are not centrally cleared (Proposed Swap Margin Amendments). Reopening the comment period that closed on December 9, 2019, will allow interested persons additional time to analyze and comment on the Proposed Swap Margin Amendments.

On October 31, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively, the agencies) published in the Federal Register a request for information (RFI) seeking information and comments from interested parties regarding the consistency of ratings assigned by the agencies under the Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System (UFIRS). The agencies have determined that an extension of the comment period until February 28, 2020, is appropriate.

In an ongoing effort to streamline issuances by the FDIC to the public and to ensure that such issuances are timely, relevant, and effective, the FDIC initiated a comprehensive review of its Statements of Policy to identify those that were outdated. Additionally, the FDIC, in the 2017 report required by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act, committed to reviewing published guidance to identify any guidance that should be revised or rescinded because it is out-of-date or otherwise no longer relevant. In furtherance of these initiatives, the FDIC Board of Directors approved a proposal to rescind four FDIC Statements of Policy, which was published in the Federal Register on September 30, 2019, with a 30-day comment period. The FDIC did not receive any comments on the proposed rescission of these Statements of Policy and is rescinding them effective December 31, 2019.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (``FDIC'') proposes to revise the existing regulations requiring persons convicted of certain criminal offenses to obtain prior written consent before participating in the conduct of the affairs of any depository institution to incorporate the FDIC's existing Statement of Policy, and to amend the regulations setting forth the FDIC's procedures and standards applicable to an application to obtain the FDIC's prior written consent. Following the issuance of final regulations, the FDIC's existing Statement of Policy would be rescinded. The proposed incorporation of the Statement of Policy into the FDIC's regulations would provide for greater transparency as to its application, provide greater certainty as to the FDIC's application process and help both insured depository institutions and affected individuals to understand its impact and to potentially seek relief from its provisions.

The FDIC is amending its deposit insurance assessment regulations to apply the community bank leverage ratio (CBLR) framework to the deposit insurance assessment system (CBLR Assessments final rule). The FDIC, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the Federal banking agencies) are considering, and are expected to adopt, a final rule that provides for a simple measure of capital adequacy for certain community banking organizations (CBLR final rule). The CBLR Assessments final rule: prices all insured depository institutions (IDIs) that elect to use the CBLR framework as small institutions; makes technical amendments to the FDIC's assessment regulations to ensure that the assessment regulations continue to reference the prompt corrective action (PCA) regulations for the definitions of capital categories used in the deposit insurance assessment system; and clarifies that an IDI that elects to use the CBLR framework and also meets the definition of a custodial bank will have no change to its custodial bank deduction or reporting items required to calculate the deduction. The final rule does not make any changes to the FDIC's assessment methodology for small or large institutions.

The FDIC, as part of its obligations under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the renewal of the existing information collection described below (3064-0200).

The Chairman of the FDIC is establishing the FDIC Advisory Committee of State Regulators (the ACSR). The ASCR will provide advice and recommendations to the FDIC on a broad range of policy issues regarding the regulation of state-chartered financial institutions throughout the United States, including its territories. The ACSR will provide a forum where state regulators and the FDIC can discuss a variety of current and emerging issues that have potential implications regarding the regulation and supervision of state-chartered financial institutions. The ACSR is intended to facilitate regular discussion of: Safety and soundness and consumer protection issues; the creation of new banks; the protection of our nation's financial system from risks such as cyber-attacks or money laundering; and other timely issues. The ACSR will serve solely in an advisory capacity and will have no final decision-making authority, nor will it have access to or discuss any non-public, confidential or institution-specific information. The Chairman certifies that the establishment of the ACSR is in the public interest in connection with the performance of duties imposed on the FDIC by law. ACSR members will not receive any compensation for their services other than reimbursement for reasonable travel expenses incurred to attend ACSR meetings.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is adopting a final rule to rescind and remove a subpart from the Code of Federal Regulations entitled ``Deposits,'' applicable to State savings associations, because the subpart is duplicative of other rules and statutes and is unnecessary to the regulation of State savings associations. The FDIC did not receive any comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) and is finalizing the rule as proposed.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is correcting a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on October 24, 2019, regarding Company-Run Stress Testing Requirements for FDIC-Supervised State Nonmember Banks and State Savings Associations. This correction replaces three additional references to ``subpart'' with ``part,'' in order to standardize the language in FDIC regulations.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule that provides for a simple measure of capital adequacy for certain community banking organizations, consistent with section 201 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (final rule). Under the final rule, depository institutions and depository institution holding companies that have less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets and meet other qualifying criteria, including a leverage ratio (equal to tier 1 capital divided by average total consolidated assets) of greater than 9 percent, will be eligible to opt into the community bank leverage ratio framework (qualifying community banking organizations). Qualifying community banking organizations that elect to use the community bank leverage ratio framework and that maintain a leverage ratio of greater than 9 percent will be considered to have satisfied the generally applicable risk-based and leverage capital requirements in the agencies' capital rules (generally applicable rule) and, if applicable, will be considered to have met the well-capitalized ratio requirements for purposes of section 38 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. The final rule includes a two-quarter grace period during which a qualifying community banking organization that temporarily fails to meet any of the qualifying criteria, including the greater than 9 percent leverage ratio requirement, generally would still be deemed well-capitalized so long as the banking organization maintains a leverage ratio greater than 8 percent. At the end of the grace period, the banking organization must meet all qualifying criteria to remain in the community bank leverage ratio framework or otherwise must comply with and report under the generally applicable rule. Similarly, a banking organization that fails to maintain a leverage ratio greater than 8 percent would not be permitted to use the grace period and must comply with the capital rule's generally applicable requirements and file the appropriate regulatory reports.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (each, an agency, and collectively, the agencies) request comment on a proposed rule that would amend the agencies' regulations that require swap dealers and security-based swap dealers under the agencies' respective jurisdictions to exchange margin with their counterparties for swaps that are not centrally cleared (Swap Margin Rule). The Swap Margin Rule as adopted in 2015 takes effect under a phased compliance schedule spanning from 2016 through 2020, and the dealers covered by the rule continue to hold swaps in their portfolios that were entered into before the effective dates of the rule. Such swaps are grandfathered from the Swap Margin Rule's requirements until they expire according to their terms. The proposed rule would permit swaps entered into prior to an applicable compliance date (legacy swaps) to retain their legacy status in the event that they are amended to replace an interbank offered rate (IBOR) or other discontinued rate, repeal the inter- affiliate initial margin provisions, introduce an additional compliance date for initial margin requirements, clarify the point in time at which trading documentation must be in place, permit legacy swaps to retain their legacy status in the event that they are amended due to technical amendments, notional reductions, or portfolio compression exercises, and make technical changes to relocate the provision addressing amendments to legacy swaps that are made to comply with the Qualified Financial Contract Rules, as defined in the Supplementary Information section.

The Board and the Corporation (together, the agencies) are jointly adopting this final rule implementing the resolution planning requirements of section 165(d) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act). This final rule is intended to reflect improvements identified since the agencies finalized their joint resolution plan rule in November 2011 (2011 rule) and to address amendments to the Dodd-Frank Act made by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). Through this final rule, the Board is also establishing risk-based categories for determining the application of the resolution planning requirement to certain U.S. and foreign banking organizations, consistent with section 401 of EGRRCPA. The final rule also extends the default resolution plan filing cycle, allows for more focused resolution plan submissions, and improves certain aspects of the resolution planning rule.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (together, the agencies) are adopting a final rule to revise the criteria for determining the applicability of regulatory capital and liquidity requirements for large U.S. banking organizations and the U.S. intermediate holding companies of certain foreign banking organizations. The final rule establishes four risk-based categories for determining the applicability of requirements under the agencies' regulatory capital rule and liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) rule. Under the final rule, such requirements increase in stringency based on measures of size, cross-jurisdictional activity, weighted short-term wholesale funding, nonbank assets, and off-balance sheet exposure. The final rule applies tailored regulatory capital and liquidity requirements to depository institution holding companies and U.S. intermediate holding companies with $100 billion or more in total consolidated assets as well as to certain depository institutions. Separately, the Board is adopting a final rule that revises the criteria for determining the applicability of enhanced prudential standards for large domestic and foreign banking organizations using a risk-based category framework that is consistent with the framework described in this final rule, and makes additional modifications to the Board's company-run stress test and supervisory stress test rules. In addition, the Board and the FDIC are separately adopting a final rule that amends the resolution planning requirements under section 165(d) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act using a risk-based category framework that is consistent with the framework described in this final rule.

In this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposes to rescind and remove certain regulations transferred in 2011 to the FDIC from the former Office of Thrift Supervision pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act). In addition to the removal of part 390, subpart S, the FDIC proposes to make technical changes to other parts of the FDIC's regulations so that they may be applicable on their terms to State savings associations. Following the removal of the identified regulations, the regulations governing the operations of State savings associations will be substantially the same as those for all other FDIC-supervised institutions. The FDIC invites comments on all aspects of this proposed rulemaking.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is adopting a final rule to amend the FDIC's company-run stress testing regulations applicable to state nonmember banks and state savings associations, consistent with section 401 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). Specifically, the final rule revises the minimum threshold for applicability from $10 billion to $250 billion, revises the frequency of required stress tests by FDIC- supervised institutions, and reduces the number of required stress testing scenarios from three to two. The final rule also makes certain conforming and technical changes.

The OCC, the Board, the FDIC, and the NCUA (collectively, the agencies) are inviting comment on proposed guidance for credit risk review systems. This proposed guidance is relevant to all institutions supervised by the agencies. The proposed guidance discusses sound management of credit risk, a system of independent, ongoing credit review, and appropriate communication regarding the performance of the institution's loan portfolio to its management and board of directors.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (the agencies) 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. On June 25, 2019, the agencies, under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), requested public comment for 60 days on a proposal to extend for three years without revision the Market Risk Regulatory Report for Institutions Subject to the Market Risk Capital Rule (FFIEC 102), which is currently an approved collection of information for each agency. The comment period for the June 2019 notice ended on August 26, 2019. As described in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section, no comments were received on the proposal; therefore, the FFIEC and the agencies will proceed with the extension of the FFIEC 102 as proposed. In addition, the agencies are giving notice that they are sending the collections to OMB for review.

On October 2, 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking with request for comments on a proposal that would rescind and remove from the Code of Federal Regulations 12 CFR part 390, subpart R, entitled Regulatory Reporting Standards (part 390, subpart R). The FDIC is supplementing that notice of proposed rulemaking with an updated regulatory flexibility analysis to reflect a few typographical changes.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule to amend the agencies' regulations requiring appraisals of real estate for certain transactions. The final rule increases the threshold level at or below which appraisals are not required for residential real estate transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. The final rule defines a residential real estate transaction as a real estate-related financial transaction that is secured by a single 1-to-4 family residential property. For residential real estate transactions exempted from the appraisal requirement as a result of the revised threshold, regulated institutions must obtain an evaluation of the real property collateral that is consistent with safe and sound banking practices. The final rule makes a conforming change to add to the list of exempt transactions those transactions secured by residential property in rural areas that have been exempted from the agencies' appraisal requirement pursuant to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. The final rule requires evaluations for these exempt transactions. The final rule also amends the agencies' appraisal regulations to require regulated institutions to subject appraisals for federally related transactions to appropriate review for compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.