Federal Reserve System 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), 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. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), of which the agencies are members, has approved the agencies' publication for public comment of a proposal for a new Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for Eligible Small Institutions (FFIEC 051). The proposed FFIEC 051 is a streamlined version of the existing Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for a Bank with Domestic Offices Only (FFIEC 041), which has been created by removing certain existing schedules and data items that would be replaced by a limited number of data items that would be collected in a new supplemental schedule, eliminating certain other existing data items, and reducing the reporting frequency of certain data items. The FFIEC 051 generally would be applicable to institutions with domestic offices only and assets of less than $1 billion. The FFIEC 041 would be applicable to institutions with domestic offices only that do not file the FFIEC 051. When compared to the existing FFIEC 041, the proposed FFIEC 051 shows a reduction in the number of pages from 85 to 61. This decrease is the result of the removal of approximately 950 or about 40 percent of the nearly 2,400 data items in the FFIEC 041. In addition, the FFIEC and the agencies are seeking public comment on proposed revisions to the FFIEC 041 and the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for a Bank with Domestic and Foreign Offices (FFIEC 031), which are currently approved collections of information. The Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income are commonly referred to as the Call Report. The proposed FFIEC 051 and the revisions to the FFIEC 041 and FFIEC 031 would take effect as of the March 31, 2017, report date. At the end of the comment period for this notice, the comments and recommendations received will be analyzed to determine the extent to which the FFIEC and the agencies should modify the proposal for the FFIEC 051 and the revisions to the FFIEC 041 and FFIEC 031 prior to giving final approval. As required by the PRA, the agencies will then publish a second Federal Register notice for a 30-day comment period and submit the final FFIEC 051, FFIEC 041, and FFIEC 031 to OMB for review and approval.

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. 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 Board 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 and the Bureau are proposing to amend 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 credit transactions be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Board and Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. The proposal would memorialize this as well as the agencies' calculation method for determining the adjustment in years following a year in which there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W. 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 proposing similar amendments to the commentaries to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in the Federal Register.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board or Federal Reserve) invites comment on a proposal to extend for three years, with revision, the Capital Assessments and Stress Testing information collection applicable to bank holding companies (BHCs) with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and U.S. intermediate holding companies (IHCs) established by foreign banking organizations under 12 CFR 252.153 (FR Y-14A/Q/M; OMB No. 7100-0341). On June 15, 1984, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) delegated to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) its approval authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), to approve of and assign OMB numbers to collection of information requests and requirements conducted or sponsored by the Board. Board- approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the PRA Submission, supporting statements 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 number.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (the Agencies) are adopting as final revisions to the Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Community Reinvestment (Questions and Answers) based on the proposal issued on September 10, 2014 addressing alternative systems for delivering retail banking services; community development-related issues; and the qualitative aspects of performance, including innovative or flexible lending practices and the responsiveness and innovativeness of an institution's loans, qualified investments, and community development services. The Agencies are clarifying nine of the 10 proposed questions and answers (Q&A), revising four existing Q&As for consistency, and adopting two new Q&As. The Agencies are not adopting one of the proposed revisions to guidance that addressed the availability and effectiveness of retail banking services. Finally, the Agencies are making technical corrections to the Questions and Answers to update cross-references and remove references related to the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) as obsolete. The Agencies are publishing all of the new and revised Q&As, as well as those Q&As that were published in 2010 and 2013 and that remain in effect in this final guidance.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) has revised part II of the Federal Reserve Policy on Payment System Risk (PSR policy) related to the procedures for measuring balances intraday in institutions' accounts at the Federal Reserve Banks (Reserve Banks) to conform with enhancements to the Reserve Banks' same-day automated clearinghouse (ACH) service previously approved by the Board.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), 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 OMB control number. On April 14, 2016, the agencies, under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), requested public comment for 60 days on a proposal to extend, with revision, the Country Exposure Report (FFIEC 009) and the Country Exposure Information Report (FFIEC 009a), which are currently approved collections of information. The comment period for this notice expired on June 13, 2016. The agencies received one comment letter. The agencies are now submitting a request to OMB for review and approval of the extension, with revision, of the FFIEC 009 and FFIEC 009a. The proposed revisions would take effect September 30, 2016.

In accordance with the requirements of the PRA (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), 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 OMB control number. On September 18, 2015, the agencies, under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), requested public comment for 60 days on a proposal for the revision and extension of the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), which are currently approved collections of information. The proposal included deletions of certain existing data items, revisions of certain reporting thresholds and certain existing data items, the addition of certain new data items, and certain instructional revisions. As described in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below, after considering the comments received on the proposal, the FFIEC and the agencies will proceed with most of the reporting revisions proposed in September 2015, with some modifications, and the FFIEC and the agencies are not proceeding with certain elements of the proposal. An additional revision to the instructions proposed by a commenter also would be implemented. These proposed reporting changes would take effect as of the September 30, 2016, or the March 31, 2017, report date, depending on the nature of the proposed reporting change.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, CFPB, SEC, and NCUA (each, an Agency and collectively, the Agencies) announce that OMB has approved the collection of information contained in the Final Interagency Policy Statement Establishing Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of Entities Regulated by the Agencies (Policy Statement). Regulated entities may now begin to submit self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices to the OMWI Director of their primary federal financial regulator.