Office of the Comptroller of the Currency 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is providing notice of its maximum civil money penalties as adjusted for inflation. The inflation adjustments are required to implement the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 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 for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

The OCC is making technical corrections to the Capital Simplification for Qualifying Community Banking Organizations final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on November 13, 2019. The technical corrections align the rule text in the final rule with changes made by other final rules. The technical corrections also include a conforming edit.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule to revise the definition of ``high volatility commercial real estate (HVCRE) exposure'' in the regulatory capital rule. This final rule conforms this definition to the statutory definition of ``high volatility commercial real estate acquisition, development, or construction (HVCRE ADC) loan,'' in accordance with section 214 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). The final rule also clarifies the capital treatment for loans that finance the development of land under the revised HVCRE exposure definition.

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, ``Financial Management PoliciesInterest Rate Risk,'' which is applicable only to Federal savings associations.

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 revised 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 respondents are 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 the revision of its information collection titled ``Licensing Manual.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

On October 22, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published in the Federal Register a final rule to revise provisions on other real estate owned and make related technical amendments. The final rule had an effective date of December 1, 2019. The OCC has determined that an amendment of the effective date to January 1, 2020, is appropriate.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule that provides for a simple measure of capital adequacy for certain community banking organizations, consistent with section 201 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (final rule). Under the final rule, depository institutions and depository institution holding companies that have less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets and meet other qualifying criteria, including a leverage ratio (equal to tier 1 capital divided by average total consolidated assets) of greater than 9 percent, will be eligible to opt into the community bank leverage ratio framework (qualifying community banking organizations). Qualifying community banking organizations that elect to use the community bank leverage ratio framework and that maintain a leverage ratio of greater than 9 percent will be considered to have satisfied the generally applicable risk-based and leverage capital requirements in the agencies' capital rules (generally applicable rule) and, if applicable, will be considered to have met the well-capitalized ratio requirements for purposes of section 38 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. The final rule includes a two-quarter grace period during which a qualifying community banking organization that temporarily fails to meet any of the qualifying criteria, including the greater than 9 percent leverage ratio requirement, generally would still be deemed well-capitalized so long as the banking organization maintains a leverage ratio greater than 8 percent. At the end of the grace period, the banking organization must meet all qualifying criteria to remain in the community bank leverage ratio framework or otherwise must comply with and report under the generally applicable rule. Similarly, a banking organization that fails to maintain a leverage ratio greater than 8 percent would not be permitted to use the grace period and must comply with the capital rule's generally applicable requirements and file the appropriate regulatory reports.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (each, an agency, and collectively, the agencies) request comment on a proposed rule that would amend the agencies' regulations that require swap dealers and security-based swap dealers under the agencies' respective jurisdictions to exchange margin with their counterparties for swaps that are not centrally cleared (Swap Margin Rule). The Swap Margin Rule as adopted in 2015 takes effect under a phased compliance schedule spanning from 2016 through 2020, and the dealers covered by the rule continue to hold swaps in their portfolios that were entered into before the effective dates of the rule. Such swaps are grandfathered from the Swap Margin Rule's requirements until they expire according to their terms. The proposed rule would permit swaps entered into prior to an applicable compliance date (legacy swaps) to retain their legacy status in the event that they are amended to replace an interbank offered rate (IBOR) or other discontinued rate, repeal the inter- affiliate initial margin provisions, introduce an additional compliance date for initial margin requirements, clarify the point in time at which trading documentation must be in place, permit legacy swaps to retain their legacy status in the event that they are amended due to technical amendments, notional reductions, or portfolio compression exercises, and make technical changes to relocate the provision addressing amendments to legacy swaps that are made to comply with the Qualified Financial Contract Rules, as defined in the Supplementary Information section.

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). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and respondents are 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 revisions to the information collections titled ``Regulation EElectronic Fund Transfer Act'' and ``Regulation ZTruth in Lending Act.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The OCC, the Board, and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official 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 mortgage loans'' 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). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the OCC, the Board, and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. However, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2019, the exemption threshold will increase from $26,700 to $27,200, effective January 1, 2020.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of the Treasury (``Treasury'' or the ``Department''), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, proposes to modify a system of records titled, ``Department of the Treasury, Office of the Comptroller .220 Notices of Proposed Changes in Employees, Officers and Directors Tracking SystemTreasury/Comptroller.'' This electronic system, is used to maintain the applications, background materials, and tracking information related to applications submitted by OCC-regulated entities for approval of employees, proposed directors or senior executive officers of a national bank, federal savings association, or federal branches of foreign banks; and requests from foreign banking supervisors for information about a former or existing employee of an OCC-regulated institution. Records in this system may be contained in an electronic system used by the OCC's Large Bank Supervision examiners or in an electronic system used by the OCC's Midsize and Community Bank supervision examiners, depending on the bank to which the records pertain. Additional copies of information may be contained in paper working files.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the banking agencies), and the National Credit Union Administration (collectively, the agencies) are inviting public comment on a proposed interagency policy statement on allowances for credit losses (ACLs). The agencies are issuing this proposed interagency policy statement in response to changes to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-13, Financial InstrumentsCredit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments and subsequent amendments issued since June 2016. These updates are codified in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 326, Financial InstrumentsCredit Losses (FASB ASC Topic 326). This proposed interagency policy statement describes the measurement of expected credit losses under the current expected credit losses (CECL) methodology and the accounting for impairment on available-for-sale (AFS) debt securities in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 326; supervisory expectations for designing, documenting, and validating expected credit loss estimation processes, including the internal controls over these processes; maintaining appropriate ACLs; the responsibilities of boards of directors and management; and examiner reviews of ACLs.

The OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are requesting comment on ways to modify the current requirements for reporting data on loans to small businesses and small farms in the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report) so that the reported data better reflect lending to these sectors of the U.S. economy.

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 the renewal of an 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 respondents are 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 the renewal of its information collection titled, ``OCC Supplier Registration Form.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are issuing a final rule that increases the thresholds in the major assets prohibition for management interlocks for purposes of the Depository Institution Management Interlocks Act (DIMIA). The DIMIA major assets prohibition prohibits a management official of a depository organization with total assets exceeding $2.5 billion (or any affiliate of such an organization) from serving at the same time as a management official of an unaffiliated depository organization with total assets exceeding $1.5 billion (or any affiliate of such an organization). DIMIA provides that the agencies may adjust, by regulation, the major assets prohibition thresholds in order to allow for inflation or market changes. The final rule increases both major assets prohibition thresholds to $10 billion to account for changes in the United States banking market since the current thresholds were established in 1996.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 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 to revise and extend the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Reports) (FFIEC 031, FFIEC 041, and FFIEC 051) and the Regulatory Capital Reporting for Institutions Subject to the Advanced Capital Adequacy Framework (FFIEC 101), which are currently approved collections of information. The proposed revisions to the Call Reports and the FFIEC 101 would implement various changes to the agencies' capital rule that the agencies have finalized or are considering finalizing. In addition, the agencies are proposing a change in the scope of the FFIEC 031 Call Report as well as an instructional revision for the reporting of operating lease liabilities in the Call Reports, both of which would take effect March 31, 2020, and a Call Report instructional revision for home equity lines of credit that convert from revolving to non-revolving status that would take effect March 31, 2021.

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 revised 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 respondents are 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 the revision of its information collection titled ``Licensing Manual.''

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 respondents are 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 the renewal of its information collection titled ``Securities Exchange Act Disclosure Rules.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

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). 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 soliciting comment on the renewal of its information collection titled ``Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of Entities Regulated by the Agencies and Diversity Self-Assessment Template for OCC-Regulated Entities.''

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announces a meeting of the Minority Depository Institutions Advisory Committee (MDIAC).

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. In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (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 entitled, ``Bank Secrecy Act/Money Laundering Risk Assessment,'' also known as the Money Laundering Risk (MLR) System. The OCC also is giving notice that it has submitted the collection to OMB for review.

The OCC, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) (collectively, the Agencies), as part of their continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invite 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 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 OCC is soliciting comment on behalf of the Agencies concerning renewal of the information collection titled, ``FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool'' (``Assessment''). The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

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 (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, ``Minimum Security Devices and Procedures, Reports of Suspicious Activities, and Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other federal agencies to take the opportunity to comment on the renewal of an information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and respondents are 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, ``Lending Limits.'' The OCC also is giving notice that the document has been submitted to OMB for review.