Federal Reserve System November 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is adopting a proposal to extend for three years, without revision, the Consumer and Stakeholder Surveys (FR 3073; OMB No. 7100-0359).

The Board and the Bureau (collectively, the Agencies) are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations and commentary for the Agencies' regulations that implement the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the CLA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer leases be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Under regulations adopted by the Agencies, if there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Agencies will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. Additionally, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted because the CPI-W decreased, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage change 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 annual percentage increase in the CPI-W as of June 1, 2023, the exemption threshold will increase from $66,400 to $69,500 effective January 1, 2024. Because the Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Truth in Lending Act's threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions, the Agencies are making similar amendments to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in the Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register.

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) jointly issued 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. Additionally, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted because the CPI-W decreased, 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, 2023, the exemption threshold will increase from $31,000 to $32,400, effective January 1, 2024.

The Board is amending Regulation D, Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions, to reflect the annual indexing of the reserve requirement exemption amount and the low reserve tranche for 2024. The annual indexation of these amounts is required notwithstanding the Board's action in March 2020 of setting all reserve requirement ratios to zero. The reserve requirement exemption amount for 2023 will remain $36.1 million, unchanged for 2024, consistent with the Federal Reserve Act (the ``Act''). The Board is amending Regulation D to set the amount of the low reserve tranche at $644.0 million (decreased from $691.7 million in 2023). The adjustment to the low reserve tranche is derived using a statutory formula specified in the Act. The annual indexation of the reserve requirement exemption amount and low reserve tranche is required by statute but will not affect depository institutions' reserve requirements, which will remain zero.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) has approved the private-sector adjustment factor (PSAF) for 2024 of $29.2 million and the 2024 fee schedules for Federal Reserve priced services and electronic access. These actions were taken in accordance with the Monetary Control Act of 1980, which requires that, over the long run, fees for Federal Reserve priced services be established based on all direct and indirect costs, including the PSAF.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) invites comment on a proposal to extend for three years, without revision, the Government-Administered, General-Use Prepaid Card Survey (FR 3063; OMB No. 7100-0343).

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) invites comment on a proposal to extend for three years, without revision, the Domestic Finance Company Report of Consolidated Assets and Liabilities (FR 2248; OMB No. 7100-0005).

Regulation II implements a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that requires the Board to establish standards for assessing whether the amount of any interchange fee received by a debit card issuer is reasonable and proportional to the cost incurred by the issuer with respect to the transaction. Under the current rule, for a debit card transaction that does not qualify for a statutory exemption, the interchange fee can be no more than the sum of a base component of 21 cents, an ad valorem component of 5 basis points multiplied by the value of the transaction, and a fraud-prevention adjustment of 1 cent if the issuer meets certain fraud-prevention-standards. The Board developed the current interchange fee cap in 2011 using data voluntarily reported to the Board by large debit card issuers concerning transactions performed in 2009. Since that time, data collected by the Board every other year on a mandatory basis from large debit card issuers show that certain costs incurred by these issuers have declined significantly; however, the interchange fee cap has remained the same. For this reason, the Board proposes to update all three components of the interchange fee cap based on the latest data reported to the Board by large debit card issuers. Further, the Board proposes to update the interchange fee cap every other year going forward by directly linking the interchange fee cap to data from the Board's biennial survey of large debit card issuers. Initially, under the proposal, the base component would be 14.4 cents, the ad valorem component would be 4.0 basis points (multiplied by the value of the transaction), and the fraud-prevention adjustment would be 1.3 cents for debit card transactions performed from the effective date of the final rule to June 30, 2025. The Board also proposes a set of technical revisions to Regulation II.