Office of the Comptroller of the Currency 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC, the Board and the Bureau are publishing final rules amending the official staff interpretations for their regulations that implement section 129H of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Section 129H of TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for ``higher-risk mortgages,'' termed ``higher-priced mortgages'' or ``HPMLs'' in the agencies' regulations. The OCC, the Board, the Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (collectively, the Agencies) issued joint final rules implementing these requirements, effective January 18, 2014. The Agencies' rules exempted, among other loan types, transactions of $25,000 or less, and required that this loan amount be adjusted annually based on 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, 2014, the OCC, the Board and the Bureau are adjusting the exemption threshold to $25,500, effective January 1, 2015.

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.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is amending its interim final rule making Basel III conforming amendments related to cross-references, subordinated debt and limits based on regulatory capital. The interim final rule, published in the Federal Register on February 28, 2014, revised and clarified the OCC's rules governing subordinated debt issued by national banks and Federal savings associations to make those rules consistent with the 2013 revised capital rules. The OCC is further clarifying the subordinated debt rules for national banks by moving certain provisions from national bank guidance to the rules and making other clarifying and technical amendments.

On July 1, 2014, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposed to adjust the timing of the annual stress testing cycle and to clarify the method used to calculate regulatory capital in the stress tests (proposed rule). The OCC is now adopting the proposed rule as final (final rule). The final rule shifts the dates of the annual stress testing cycle by approximately three months. The final rule also provides that covered institutions will not have to calculate their risk-weighted assets using the internal ratings-based and advanced measurement approaches until the stress testing cycle beginning on January 1, 2016.

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 (PRA). In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, 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 renewal of its information collection titled, ``Electronic Operations.'' The OCC is also giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announces a meeting of the Mutual Savings Association Advisory Committee (MSAAC).

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 (PRA). In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, 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. Currently, the OCC is soliciting comment concerning its renewal of an information collection titled ``Debt Cancellation Contracts and Debt Suspension Agreements.''

In May 2014, 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) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR or proposed rule) to revise the definition of the denominator of the supplementary leverage ratio (total leverage exposure) that the agencies adopted in July 2013 as part of comprehensive revisions to the agencies' regulatory capital rules (2013 revised capital rule). The agencies are adopting the proposed rule as final (final rule) with certain revisions and clarifications based on comments received on the proposed rule. The final rule revises total leverage exposure as defined in the 2013 revised capital rule to include the effective notional principal amount of credit derivatives and other similar instruments through which a banking organization provides credit protection (sold credit protection); modifies the calculation of total leverage exposure for derivative and repo-style transactions; and revises the credit conversion factors applied to certain off-balance sheet exposures. The final rule also changes the frequency with which certain components of the supplementary leverage ratio are calculated and establishes the public disclosure requirements of certain items associated with the supplementary leverage ratio. The final rule applies to all banks, savings associations, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies (banking organizations) that are subject to the agencies' advanced approaches risk-based capital rules, as defined in the 2013 revised capital rule (advanced approaches banking organizations), including advanced approaches banking organizations that are subject to the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio standards that the agencies finalized in May 2014 (eSLR standards). Consistent with the 2013 revised capital rule, advanced approaches banking organizations will be required to disclose their supplementary leverage ratios beginning January 1, 2015, and will be required to comply with a minimum supplementary leverage ratio capital requirement of 3 percent and, as applicable, the eSLR standards beginning January 1, 2018.

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 accounting and capital standards used by the agencies. The report must be published in the Federal Register.

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 (PRA). In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, 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 renewal of its information collection titled, ``Fair Housing Home Loan Data System Regulation.'' The OCC is also giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is adopting guidelines, issued as an appendix to its safety and soundness standards regulations, establishing minimum standards for the design and implementation of a risk governance framework (Framework) for large insured national banks, insured Federal savings associations, and insured Federal branches of foreign banks (banks) with average total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and minimum standards for a board of directors in overseeing the Framework's design and implementation (final Guidelines). The standards contained in the final Guidelines will be enforceable by the terms of a Federal statute that authorizes the OCC to prescribe operational and managerial standards for national banks and Federal savings associations. In addition, as part of our ongoing efforts to integrate the regulations of the OCC and those of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the OCC is adopting final rules and guidelines that make its safety and soundness standards regulations and guidelines applicable to both national banks and Federal savings associations and that remove the comparable Federal savings association regulations and guidelines. The OCC is also adopting other technical changes to the safety and soundness standards regulations and guidelines.

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 a revision to this 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 revision to a 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 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 new information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). Under 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 PRA, 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 proposed information collection titled, ``Domestic Residential Home Equity Lending Data.''

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 agencies, under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), have approved the publication for public comment of the proposed Market Risk Regulatory Report for Institutions Subject to the Market Risk Capital Rule (FFIEC 102). The proposed reporting requirements reflect the revised regulatory capital rules adopted by the agencies in July 2013 (revised regulatory capital rules) and would collect key information from respondents on how they measure and calculate market risk under the agencies' revised regulatory capital rules. The proposed FFIEC 102 reporting requirements would take effect as of March 31, 2015, for institutions subject to the market risk capital rule as incorporated into Subpart F of the revised regulatory capital rules (market risk capital rule).

The Comptroller of the Currency has determined that the renewal of the Charter of the OCC Minority Depository Institutions Advisory Committee (MDIAC) is necessary and in the public interest in order to provide advice and information about the current circumstances and future development of minority depository institutions, in accordance with the goals established by section 308 of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA).

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 (PRA). In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, 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 renewal of its information collection titled, ``Electronic Operations.''

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 (PRA). In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, 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, ``Community Reinvestment Act Regulations.'' The OCC is also giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is adopting a final rule to increase assessments for national banks and Federal savings associations (FSAs) with assets of more than $40 billion. The increase will range between 0.32 percent and approximately 14 percent, depending on the total assets of the institution as reflected in its June 30, 2014, Consolidated Report of Condition and Income (Call Report). The average increase in assessments for affected banks and FSAs will be 12 percent. The final rule will not increase assessments for banks or FSAs with $40 billion or less in total assets. The OCC will implement the increase in assessments by issuing an amended Notice of Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Fees and Assessments (Notice of Fees), which will become effective as of the semiannual assessment due on September 30, 2014. In conjunction with the increase in assessments, the final rule updates the OCC's assessment rule to conform with section 318 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act), which reaffirmed the authority of the Comptroller of the Currency (the Comptroller) to set the amount of, and methodology for, assessments. The final rule also makes technical and conforming changes to the assessment rule.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announces a meeting of the Mutual Savings Association Advisory Committee (MSAAC).

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 (PRA). Under 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 PRA, 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 renewal of its information collection titled, ``Fair Housing Home Loan Data System Regulation.''

The Agencies are issuing jointly an Addendum (Addendum) to the ``Interagency Policy Statement on Income Tax Allocation in a Holding Company Structure'' 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 Addendum instructs IDIs and their holding companies to review and revise 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 Addendum includes a sample paragraph that IDIs could include in their tax allocation agreements to facilitate the Agencies' instructions.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is proposing to integrate its rules relating to policies and procedures for corporate activities and transactions involving national banks and Federal savings associations, to revise some of these rules in order to eliminate unnecessary requirements consistent with safety and soundness, and to make other technical and conforming changes. The OCC also is proposing amendments to update its rules for agency organization and function.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is seeking nominations of members for the Mutual Savings Association Advisory Committee (MSAAC) and the Minority Depository Institutions Advisory Committee (MDIAC). The MSAAC and the MDIAC assist the OCC in assessing the needs and challenges facing mutual savings associations and minority depository institutions, respectively. The OCC is seeking nominations of individuals who are officers and/or directors of federal mutual savings associations, or officers/and or directors of federal stock savings associations that are part of a mutual holding company structure, to be considered for selection as MSAAC members. The OCC is also seeking nominations of individuals who are officers and/or directors of OCC-regulated minority depository institutions, or officers and/or directors of other depository institutions with a commitment to supporting minority depository institutions, to be considered for selection as MDIAC members.