Federal Reserve System – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Board and the Commission are jointly issuing final rules to implement the risk-based pricing provisions in section 311 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act), which amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The final rules generally require a creditor to provide a risk-based pricing notice to a consumer when the creditor uses a consumer report to grant or extend credit to the consumer on material terms that are materially less favorable than the most favorable terms available to a substantial proportion of consumers from or through that creditor. The final rules also provide for two alternative means by which creditors can determine when they are offering credit on material terms that are materially less favorable. The final rules also include certain exceptions to the general rule, including exceptions for creditors that provide a consumer with a disclosure of the consumer's credit score in conjunction with additional information that provides context for the credit score disclosure.

The Board of Governors (Board) is amending the routing number guide to next-day availability checks and local checks in Regulation CC to delete the reference to the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and to reassign the Federal Reserve routing symbols currently listed under that office to the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. These amendments reflect the restructuring of check-processing operations within the Federal Reserve System. Subsequent to these amendments, there will only be a single check- processing region for purposes of Regulation CC and there will no longer be any checks that are nonlocal.

The Board is requesting public comment on proposed amendments to Regulation D, Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions, to authorize the establishment of term deposits. Term deposits are intended to facilitate the conduct of monetary policy by providing a tool for managing the aggregate quantity of reserve balances. Institutions eligible to receive earnings on their balances in accounts at Federal Reserve Banks (``eligible institutions'') could hold term deposits and receive earnings at a rate that would not exceed the general level of short-term interest rates. Term deposits would be separate and distinct from those maintained in an institution's master account at a Reserve Bank (``master account'') as well as from those maintained in an excess balance account. Term deposits would not satisfy required reserve balances or contractual clearing balances and would not be available to clear payments or to cover daylight or overnight overdrafts. The proposal also would make minor amendments to the posting rules for intraday debits and credits to master accounts as

The Board is publishing a final rule amending the staff commentary that interprets the requirements of Regulation C (Home Mortgage Disclosure) to reflect no change in the asset-size exemption threshold for depository institutions based on the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPIW). The exemption threshold remains $39 million. The CPIW decreased by 0.98 percent during the twelve-month period ending in November 2009, but this change is too small to warrant any reduction in the exemption threshold pursuant to Regulation C. Therefore, depository institutions with assets of $39 million or less as of December 31, 2009 are exempt from collecting data in 2010.

This final rule amends Regulation A to provide a process by which the Federal Reserve Bank of New York may determine the eligibility of credit rating agencies in the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility. The final rule does not apply to discount window lending or other extensions of credit provided by the Federal Reserve System. In addition, the final rule only applies to asset- backed securities that are not backed by commercial real estate. The amendment does not represent a change in the stance of monetary policy.