Federal Reserve System December 29, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the availability of the revised Consumer Handbook on Adjustable Rate Mortgages by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (the OTS). The Consumer Handbook on Adjustable Rate Mortgages (the CHARM booklet) provides information to consumers about the features and risks of adjustable rate mortgage loans. Under Regulation Z (which implements the Truth in Lending Act), creditors must provide a copy of the CHARM booklet published by the Board and the OTS, or a suitable substitute, to consumers with every application for an adjustable rate mortgage loan. The CHARM booklet published by the Board and the OTS today replaces the CHARM booklet published in 1987 and most recently reprinted May 2005.

The OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the ``agencies'') are publishing this joint final rule to reinsert a provision that was inadvertently deleted when the agencies revised their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations in August 2005. This change is technical only and does not make any substantive revisions. The agencies are also amending their CRA regulations to increase the asset-size threshold to be used to define ``small bank'' and ``intermediate small bank.'' The regulation is amended to state the increase in the threshold amount based on the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index.