Federal Reserve System – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Background. Notice is hereby given of the final approval of proposed information collections by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) under OMB delegated authority, as per 5 CFR 1320.16 (OMB Regulations on Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public). Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the Paperwork Reduction Act Submission, supporting statements and approved collection of information instruments are placed into OMB's public docket files. The Federal Reserve may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

On November 17, 2009, the Board published final rules amending Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and the official staff commentary to the regulation. The final rule limited the ability of financial institutions to assess overdraft fees for paying automated teller machine (ATM) and one-time debit card transactions that overdraw a consumer's account, unless the consumer affirmatively consents, or opts in, to the institution's payment of overdrafts for those transactions. The Board proposes to amend Regulation E and the official staff commentary to clarify certain aspects of the final rule.

The Board is withdrawing a final rule amending Regulation Z and the staff commentary to the regulation published on January 29, 2009 (January 2009 Regulation Z Rule). See 72 FR 5244. The Board is publishing a new final rule elsewhere in this Federal Register amending Regulation Z in order to implement the provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 that are effective on February 22, 2010. The requirements of the January 2009 Regulation Z Rule have been revised for consistency with the Credit Card Act and incorporated in the new final rule. Therefore, the Board is withdrawing the January 2009 Regulation Z Rule as unnecessary.

On January 29, 2009, the Board published a final rule amending Regulation AA and the staff commentary to the regulation. The substantive requirements in the January 2009 Regulation AA Rule, which were scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2010, have been superseded by provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (Credit Card Act) that go into effect on February 22, 2010. Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, the Board is implementing these Credit Card Act provisions in a new final rule amending Regulation Z. Accordingly, in order to avoid duplication and inconsistency, the Board is further amending Regulation AA to remove the substantive requirements in the January 2009 Regulation AA Rule. For procedural reasons, these requirements will be removed effective July 1, 2010. However, it is the Board's intent that the substantive requirements of the January 2009 Regulation AA Rule will not take effect.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) (collectively, the agencies) are amending their general risk- based and advanced risk-based capital adequacy frameworks by adopting a final rule that eliminates the exclusion of certain consolidated asset- backed commercial paper programs from risk-weighted assets; provides for an optional two-quarter implementation delay followed by an optional two-quarter partial implementation of the effect on risk- weighted assets that will result from changes to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; provides for an optional two-quarter delay, followed by an optional two-quarter phase-in, of the application of the agencies' regulatory limit on the inclusion of the allowance for loan and lease losses (ALLL) in tier 2 capital for the portion of the ALLL associated with the assets a banking organization consolidates as a result of changes to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; and provides a reservation of authority to permit the agencies to require a banking organization to treat entities that are not consolidated under accounting standards as if they were consolidated for risk-based capital purposes, commensurate with the risk relationship of the banking organization to the structure. The delay and subsequent phase-in periods of the implementation will apply only to the agencies' risk-based capital requirements, not the leverage ratio requirement.