Office of the Comptroller of the Currency 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is clarifying the effective dates of the adjustments to the maximum amount of CMPs the OCC administers that were published on November 6, 2012.

The OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the agencies) have prepared this report pursuant to section 37(c) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. Section 37(c) requires the agencies to jointly submit an annual report to the Committee on Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives and to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the U.S. Senate describing differences between the capital and accounting standards used by the agencies. The report must be published in the Federal Register.

The OCC has determined that the renewal of the charter of the OCC Mutual Savings Association Advisory Committee (MSAAC) is necessary and in the public interest. The OCC hereby gives notice of the renewal of the charter.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the OCC may not conduct or sponsor, and a 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 OCC is extending, without revision, the ``Risk-Based Capital Standards: Advanced Capital Adequacy Framework'' information collection, pending OMB review and action on proposed changes to the collection arising from proposed rules published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2012, entitled ``Regulatory Capital Rules: Regulatory Capital, Implementation of Basel III, Minimum Regulatory Capital Ratios, Capital Adequacy, Transition Provisions, and Prompt Corrective Action;'' ``Regulatory Capital Rules: Standardized Approach for Risk-Weighted Assets; Market Discipline and Disclosure Requirements;'' and ``Regulatory Capital Rules: Advanced Approaches Risk-Based Capital Rule; Market Risk Capital Rule.''

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. On November 21, 2011, 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 Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), which are currently approved collections of information. After considering the comments received on the proposal, the FFIEC and the agencies announced their final decisions regarding certain proposed revisions on February 17, 2012. The agencies also announced they were continuing to evaluate two new proposed Call Report schedules (Schedule RI-C, Disaggregated Data on the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses, and Schedule RC-U, Loan Origination Activity (in Domestic Offices)) in light of the comments received. The FFIEC and the agencies have completed their evaluation of Schedule RI-C and will proceed with a modified version of the schedule, which will be completed by institutions with $1 billion or more in total assets beginning March 31, 2013. However, the FFIEC and the agencies are continuing their evaluation of proposed Schedule RC-U. The FFIEC's and the agencies' decision regarding proposed Schedule RC-U will be addressed in a future Federal Register notice, and any resulting new reporting requirements for loan origination data will not take effect before the June 30, 2013, report date.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), 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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``Company-Run Annual Stress Test Reporting Template and Documentation for Covered Institutions with Total Consolidated Assets of $50 Billion or More under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.'' The OCC is also announcing that the proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The OCC, 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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the 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. In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the OCC 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 OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``Securities Exchange Act Disclosure Rules (12 CFR part 11) and Securities of Federal Savings Associations (12 CFR part 194).''

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is proposing to amend its retail foreign exchange rule for transactions with bank common trust funds, bank collective investment funds, and insurance company separate accounts and is making technical corrections to the rule.

This final rule revises the requirements imposed on national banks pursuant to the OCC's short-term investment fund (STIF) rule (STIF Rule). Regulations governing Federal savings associations (FSAs) require compliance with the national bank STIF Rule. The final rule adds safeguards designed to address the risk of loss to a STIF's principal, including measures governing the nature of a STIF's investments, ongoing monitoring of its mark-to-market value and forecasting of potential changes in its mark-to-market value under adverse market conditions, greater transparency and regulatory reporting about a STIF's holdings, and procedures to protect fiduciary accounts from undue dilution of their participating interests in the event that the STIF loses the ability to maintain a stable net asset value (NAV).

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (collectively, the Agencies) are reopening the comment period for the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on May 11, 2011 (76 FR 27564) to establish minimum margin and capital requirements for uncleared swaps and security-based swaps entered into by swap dealers, major swap participants, security-based swap dealers, and major security-based swap participants for which one of the Agencies is the prudential regulator (Proposed Margin Rule). Reopening the comment period that expired on July 11, 2011 will allow interested persons additional time to analyze and comment on the Proposed Margin Rule in light of the consultative document on margin requirements for non-centrally-cleared derivatives recently published for comment by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The OCC, 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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the OCC is soliciting comment concerning a renewal of an existing collection titled ``Customer Complaint Form.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has submitted the collection to OMB for review.

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) (collectively, the agencies) are seeking comment on three notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRs) that would revise and replace the agencies' current capital rules. This NPR (Standardized Approach NPR) includes proposed changes to the agencies' general risk-based capital requirements for determining risk-weighted assets (that is, the calculation of the denominator of a banking organization's risk-based capital ratios). The proposed changes would revise and harmonize the agencies' rules for calculating risk- weighted assets to enhance risk-sensitivity and address weaknesses identified over recent years, including by incorporating certain international capital standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) set forth in the standardized approach of the ``International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: A Revised Framework'' (Basel II), as revised by the BCBS between 2006 and 2009, and other proposals addressed in recent consultative papers of the BCBS. In this NPR, the agencies also propose alternatives to credit ratings for calculating risk-weighted assets for certain assets, consistent with section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). The revisions include methodologies for determining risk-weighted assets for residential mortgages, securitization exposures, and counterparty credit risk. The changes in the Standardized Approach NPR are proposed to take effect on January 1, 2015, with an option for early adoption. The Standardized Approach NPR also would introduce disclosure requirements that would apply to top-tier banking organizations domiciled in the United States with $50 billion or more in total assets, including disclosures related to regulatory capital instruments. In connection with the proposed changes to the agencies' capital rules in this NPR, the agencies are also seeking comment on the two related NPRs published elsewhere in today's Federal Register. The two related NPR's are discussed further in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are revising their market risk capital rules to better capture positions for which the market risk capital rules are appropriate; reduce procyclicality; enhance the rules' sensitivity to risks that are not adequately captured under current methodologies; and increase transparency through enhanced disclosures. The final rule does not include all of the methodologies adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for calculating the standardized specific risk capital requirements for debt and securitization positions due to their reliance on credit ratings, which is impermissible under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Instead, the final rule includes alternative methodologies for calculating standardized specific risk capital requirements for debt and securitization positions.

The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on this continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. Currently, the OCC is soliciting comment concerning a proposed new regulatory reporting requirement for national banks and Federal savings associations titled, ``Company-Run Annual Stress Test Reporting Template and Documentation for Covered Institutions with Total Consolidated Assets of $50 Billion or More under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.'' The proposal describes the scope of reporting and the proposed reporting requirements.

The OCC, 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 information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). The OCC is soliciting comments concerning the currently approved Minimum Security Devices and Procedures, Reports of Suspicious Activities, and Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program information collection, which is being renewed without change. The OCC is also giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) contains two directives to Federal agencies including the OCC. First, section 939A directs all Federal agencies to review, no later than one year after enactment, any regulation that requires the use of an assessment of creditworthiness of a security or money market instrument and any references to, or requirements in, such regulations regarding credit ratings. Second, the agencies are required to remove any references to, or requirements of reliance on, credit ratings and substitute such standard of creditworthiness as each agency determines is appropriate. The statute further provides that the agencies shall seek to establish, to the extent feasible, uniform standards of creditworthiness, taking into account the entities the agencies regulate and the purposes for which those entities would rely on such standards. On November 29, 2011, the OCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), seeking comment on a proposal to revise its regulations pertaining to investment securities, securities offerings, and foreign bank capital equivalency deposits to replace references to credit ratings with alternative standards of creditworthiness. The OCC also proposed to amend its regulations pertaining to financial subsidiaries of national banks to better reflect the language of the underlying statute, as amended by section 939(d) of the Dodd- Frank Act. Today, the OCC is finalizing those rules as proposed.

The OCC, 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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancies under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003.''

The Board, FDIC and OCC, (collectively, the ``agencies'') are issuing this guidance, which outlines high-level principles for stress testing practices, applicable to all Federal Reserve-supervised, FDIC- supervised, and OCC-supervised banking organizations with more than $10 billion in total consolidated assets. The guidance highlights the importance of stress testing as an ongoing risk management practice that supports a banking organization's forward-looking assessment of its risks and better equips the organization to address a range of adverse outcomes.

The OCC, 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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``Procedures to Enhance the Accuracy and Integrity of Information Furnished to Consumer Reporting Agencies under Section 312 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).''

The OCC is requesting comment on a proposal that would revise the requirements imposed on banks pursuant to 12 CFR 9.18(b)(4)(ii)(B), the short-term investment fund (STIF) rule (STIF Rule). The proposal would add safeguards designed to address the risk of loss to a STIF's principal, including measures governing the nature of a STIF's investments, ongoing monitoring of its mark-to-market value and forecasting of potential changes in its mark-to-market value under adverse market conditions, greater transparency and regulatory reporting about a STIF's holdings, and procedures to protect fiduciary accounts from undue dilution of their participating interests in the event that the STIF loses the ability to maintain a stable net asset value (NAV).

The OCC, 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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``International RegulationPart 28.'' The OCC is also giving notice that the collection has been sent to OMB for review.

The OCC, Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the Agencies) request comment on proposed guidance on leveraged lending (proposed guidance). The proposed guidance outlines high-level principles related to safe and sound leveraged lending activities, including underwriting considerations, assessing and documenting enterprise value, risk management expectations for credits awaiting distribution, stress testing expectations and portfolio management, and risk management expectations. This proposed guidance would apply to all Federal Reserve-supervised, FDIC-supervised, and OCC-supervised financial institutions substantively engaged in leveraged lending activities. The number of community banking organizations with substantial exposure to leveraged lending is very small; therefore the Agencies generally expect that community banking organizations largely would be unaffected by this guidance.

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. On November 21, 2011, 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 Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), which are currently approved collections of information. After considering the comments received on the proposal, the FFIEC and the agencies will proceed with the reporting changes and instructional revisions that had been proposed to take effect March 31, 2012. The FFIEC and the agencies will also implement the two less detailed Call Report revisions that had been proposed for implementation as of June 30, 2012. As for the two new schedules that also had been proposed to be added to the Call Report beginning June 30, 2012,\1\ the FFIEC and the agencies are continuing to evaluate these proposed schedules in light of the comments received. The FFIEC's and the agencies' decisions regarding these two proposed schedules will be the subject of a separate Federal Register notice and any resulting new reporting requirements will not take effect before the September 30, 2012, report date.