Department of the Treasury October 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), are adopting a final rule that revises their risk-based and leverage capital requirements for banking organizations. The final rule consolidates three separate notices of proposed rulemaking that the OCC, Board, and FDIC published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2012, with selected changes. The final rule implements a revised definition of regulatory capital, a new common equity tier 1 minimum capital requirement, a higher minimum tier 1 capital requirement, and, for banking organizations subject to the advanced approaches risk-based capital rules, a supplementary leverage ratio that incorporates a broader set of exposures in the denominator. The final rule incorporates these new requirements into the agencies' prompt corrective action (PCA) framework. In addition, the final rule establishes limits on a banking organization's capital distributions and certain discretionary bonus payments if the banking organization does not hold a specified amount of common equity tier 1 capital in addition to the amount necessary to meet its minimum risk-based capital requirements. Further, the final rule amends the methodologies for determining risk-weighted assets for all banking organizations, and introduces disclosure requirements that would apply to top-tier banking organizations domiciled in the United States with $50 billion or more in total assets. The final rule also adopts changes to the agencies' regulatory capital requirements that meet the requirements of section 171 and section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The final rule also codifies the agencies' regulatory capital rules, which have previously resided in various appendices to their respective regulations, into a harmonized integrated regulatory framework. In addition, the OCC is amending the market risk capital rule (market risk rule) to apply to Federal savings associations, and the Board is amending the advanced approaches and market risk rules to apply to top-tier savings and loan holding companies domiciled in the United States, except for certain savings and loan holding companies that are substantially engaged in insurance underwriting or commercial activities, as described in this preamble.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form 1120-L, U.S. Life Insurance Company Income Tax Return, and 1120-L SCH M-3, Net Income (Loss) Reconciliation for U.S. Life Insurance Companies With Total Assets of $10 Million or More.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing the names of five individuals and six entities whose property and interests in property have been blocked pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (``Kingpin Act'') (21 U.S.C. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. 1182).

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A). Currently the Bureau of the Fiscal Service within the Department of the Treasury is soliciting comments concerning the Sale and Issue of Marketable Book-Entry Securities.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) establishes the approximately 17,633-acre ``Moon Mountain District Sonoma County'' viticultural area in Sonoma County, California. The viticultural area lies entirely within the larger Sonoma Valley viticultural area and the multicounty North Coast viticultural area. TTB designates viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is requesting applications for membership to serve on the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT). Applications will be accepted for the following vacancies, which will occur in June 2014: Two (2) employee plans; two (2) exempt organizations; three (3) federal, state, and local governments; two (2) Indian Tribal Governments; and one (1) tax- exempt bonds. To ensure appropriate balance of membership, final selection from qualified candidates will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other expertise. Members of the ACT may not be federally registered lobbyists.

This document adopts as a final rule, with some changes, interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations which were published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2012, as CBP Dec. 12-16, to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States- Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

The OCC, FDIC, and NCUA (the Agencies), are soliciting public comment on the renewal of a collection of information by the Agencies. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. The Agencies are soliciting comment concerning renewal of their information collection titled, ``Reverse Mortgage Products: Guidance for Managing Compliance and Reputation Risks.'' The agencies are also giving notice that they are sending their collections to OMB for review.