Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation December 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and effective, the FDIC initiated a comprehensive review of its Statements of Policy to identify those that were outdated.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Paperwork Reduction Act, committed to reviewing published guidance to identify any guidance that should be revised or rescinded because it is out-of-date or otherwise no longer relevant.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.