Federal Reserve System 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the Agencies) are amending their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations to adjust the asset-size thresholds used to define ``small bank'' or ``small savings association'' and ``intermediate small bank'' or ``intermediate small savings association.'' As required by the CRA regulations, the adjustment to the threshold amount is based on the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index.

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.

Notice is hereby given of the final approval of a proposed information collection by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) under OMB delegated authority, pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.16 (OMB Regulations on Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public). Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the Paperwork Reduction Act Submission, supporting statements and approved collection of information instrument(s) are placed into OMB's public docket files. The Federal Reserve may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ``Dodd-Frank Act'' or ``Act'') permits the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the ``Board'') to authorize a Federal Reserve Bank to establish and maintain an account for, and through the account provide certain financial services to, financial market utilities (``FMUs'') that are designated as systemically important by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (the ``Council''). In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act permits a Reserve Bank to pay interest on the balances maintained by or on behalf of a designated FMU. The Board is promulgating regulations to implement these provisions of the Dodd- Frank Act.

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.

Notice is hereby given of the final approval of a proposed information collection by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) under OMB delegated authority, pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.16 (OMB Regulations on Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public). Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the Paperwork Reduction Act Submission, supporting statement and approved collection of information instruments are placed into OMB's public docket files. The Federal Reserve may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The Board of Governors (Board) is requesting comment on proposed amendments to subpart A of its Regulation J, Collection of Checks and Other Items by Federal Reserve Banks and Funds Transfers through Fedwire. The proposed rule would permit the Federal Reserve Banks (Reserve Banks) to require paying banks that receive presentment of checks from the Reserve Banks to make the proceeds of settlement for those checks available to the Reserve Banks as soon as one half-hour after receipt of the checks. The proposed rule would also permit the Reserve Banks to obtain settlement from paying banks by as early as 8:30 a.m. Eastern time for checks that the Reserve Banks present. These proposed amendments to Regulation J are necessary to implement the proposed method for posting debits and credits to banks' Federal Reserve accounts to measure daylight overdrafts under the Federal Reserve Policy on Payment System Risk (PSR policy), as proposed in Docket No. OP-1472, elsewhere in the Federal Register.

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) are requesting comment on a proposed rule (proposed rule) that would implement a quantitative liquidity requirement consistent with the liquidity coverage ratio standard established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The requirement is designed to promote the short-term resilience of the liquidity risk profile of internationally active banking organizations, thereby improving the banking sector's ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress, as well as improvements in the measurement and management of liquidity risk. The proposed rule would apply to all internationally active banking organizations, generally, bank holding companies, certain savings and loan holding companies, and depository institutions with more than $250 billion in total assets or more than $10 billion in on-balance sheet foreign exposure, and to their consolidated subsidiaries that are depository institutions with $10 billion or more in total consolidated assets. The proposed rule would also apply to companies designated for supervision by the Board by the Financial Stability Oversight Council under section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that do not have significant insurance operations and to their consolidated subsidiaries that are depository institutions with $10 billion or more in total consolidated assets. The Board also is proposing on its own a modified liquidity coverage ratio standard that is based on a 21- calendar day stress scenario rather than a 30 calendar-day stress scenario for bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies without significant insurance or commercial operations that, in each case, have $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets.

The Board and the Bureau are publishing final rules amending the official interpretations and commentary for the agencies' regulations that implement the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the CLA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer leases be adjusted annually by any annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Based on the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W as of June 1, 2013, the Board and the Bureau are adjusting the exemption threshold to $53,500, effective January 1, 2014. Because the Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Truth in Lending Act's threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions, the Board and the Bureau are making similar amendments to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in the Federal Register.