Office of the Comptroller of the Currency March 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC, Board, FDIC, and OTS (the Agencies) are publishing an interpretation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the Interagency Guidelines Establishing Information Security Standards (Security Guidelines).\1\ This interpretive guidance, titled ``Interagency Guidance on Response Programs for Unauthorized Access to Customer Information and Customer Notice'' (final Guidance), is being published as a supplement to the Security Guidelines in the Code of Federal Regulations in order to make the interpretation more accessible to financial institutions and to the general public. The final Guidance will clarify the responsibilities of financial institutions under applicable Federal law. OTS is also making a conforming, technical change to its Security Procedures Rule.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, and OTS (the agencies) request comment on their proposal to revise the classification system for commercial credit exposures. The proposal will replace the current commercial loan classification system categories ``special mention,'' ``substandard,'' and ``doubtful'' with a two-dimensional based framework. The proposed framework would be used by institutions and supervisors for the uniform classification of commercial and industrial loans; leases; receivables; mortgages; and other extensions of credit made for business purposes by federally insured depository institutions and their subsidiaries (institutions), based on an assessment of borrower creditworthiness and estimated loss severity. The proposed framework would not modify the interagency classification of retail credit as stated in the ``Uniform Retail Credit Classification and Account Management Policy Statement,'' issued in February 2000. However, by creating a new treatment for commercial loan exposures, the proposed framework would modify Part I of the ``Revised Uniform Agreement on the Classification of Assets and Appraisal of Securities Held by Banks and Thrifts' issued in June 2004. This proposal is intended to enhance the methodology used to systematically assess the level of credit risk posed by individual commercial extensions of credit and the level of an institution's aggregate commercial credit risk.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, ``federal banking agencies'' or ``the Agencies'') are issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking that would revise certain provisions of our rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). We plan to take this action in response to public comments received by the federal banking agencies and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) on a February 2004 inter-agency CRA proposal and by the FDIC on its August 2004 CRA proposal. The current proposal would address regulatory burden imposed on some smaller banks by revising the eligibility requirements for CRA evaluation under the lending, investment, and service tests. Specifically, the proposal would provide a simplified lending test and a flexible new community development test for small banks with an asset size between $250 million and $1 billion. Holding company affiliation would not be a factor in determining which CRA evaluation standards applied to a bank. In addition, the proposal would revise the term ``community development'' to include certain community development activities, including affordable housing, in underserved rural areas and designated disaster areas.