Federal Reserve System – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the ``Board'') is issuing a final rule amending its rules of practice and procedure to adjust the amount of each civil money penalty (``CMP'') provided by law within its jurisdiction to account for inflation as required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.

The Board is adopting a final rule to require a U.S. top-tier bank holding company identified under the Board's rules as a global systemically important bank holding company (covered BHC) to maintain outstanding a minimum amount of loss-absorbing instruments, including a minimum amount of unsecured long-term debt. In addition, the final rule prescribes certain additional buffers, the breach of which would result in limitations on the capital distributions and discretionary bonus payments of a covered BHC. The final rule applies similar requirements to the top-tier U.S. intermediate holding company of a global systemically important foreign banking organization with $50 billion or more in U.S. non-branch assets (covered IHC). The final rule also imposes restrictions on other liabilities that a covered BHC or covered IHC may have outstanding in order to improve their resolvability and resiliency; these restrictions are referred to in the final rule as ``clean holding company requirements.''

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (``Board'') has adopted final amendments to its Regulation A to reflect the Board's approval of an increase in the rate for primary credit at each Federal Reserve Bank. The secondary credit rate at each Reserve Bank automatically increased by formula as a result of the Board's primary credit rate action.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board or Federal Reserve) is adopting a proposal to extend for three years, without revision the following reporting and recordkeeping requirements related to amendments made by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, to the Bank Holding Company Act, the Federal Reserve Act, and related regulations. On June 15, 1984, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) delegated to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) its approval authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), to approve of and assign OMB numbers to collection of information requests and requirements conducted or sponsored by the Board. Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the PRA 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 number.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 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. On August 15, 2016, the agencies, under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), requested public comment for 60 days on a proposal for a new Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for Eligible Small Institutions (FFIEC 051). The proposed FFIEC 051 is a streamlined version of the existing Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for a Bank with Domestic Offices Only (FFIEC 041), which was created by (1) removing certain existing schedules and data items and replacing them with a limited number of data items in a new supplemental schedule, (2) eliminating certain other existing data items, and (3) reducing the reporting frequency of certain data items. The FFIEC 051 generally would be available to institutions with domestic offices only and assets of less than $1 billion, which currently file the FFIEC 041. Of the nearly 6,000 insured depository institutions, approximately 5,200 would be eligible to file the proposed FFIEC 051. When compared to the existing FFIEC 041, the proposed FFIEC 051 shows a reduction in the number of pages from 85 to 61. This decrease is the result of the removal of approximately 950 or about 40 percent of the nearly 2,400 data items in the FFIEC 041. Of the data items remaining from the FFIEC 041, the agencies have reduced the reporting frequency for approximately 100 data items in the proposed FFIEC 051. In addition, the FFIEC and the agencies requested public comment on proposed revisions to the FFIEC 041 and the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for a Bank with Domestic and Foreign Offices (FFIEC 031), which are currently approved collections of information. The Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income are commonly referred to as the Call Report. The comment period for the August 2016 notice ended on October 14, 2016. As described in the Supplementary Information section, after considering the comments received on the proposals, the FFIEC and the agencies will proceed with the implementation of the proposed FFIEC 051, along with the proposed reporting revisions to the FFIEC 041 and FFIEC 031, with some modifications to the proposals for all three versions of the Call Report. With OMB approval, the proposed FFIEC 051 and the proposed reporting changes to the existing FFIEC 031 and FFIEC 041 would become effective as of March 31, 2017. The agencies also are giving notice that they have sent the collection to OMB for review.

The Federal Open Market Committee (Committee) invites comments on this interim final rule amending its Rules Regarding Availability of Information (Rules). These revisions conform to recent statutory amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) made by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 (FOIA Improvement Act), as well as other technical changes intended to clarify existing procedures for requesting information and updating contact information.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is requesting comment on proposed guidelines to evaluate requests for joint accounts at Federal Reserve Banks (Reserve Banks) by private- sector arrangements within the U.S. payment system. Under the Federal Reserve Act (FRA), Reserve Banks have the authority to open accounts for member banks and other eligible depository institutions. The Reserve Banks typically permit a single master account per eligible institution but have, in limited cases, opened joint accounts for specific uses. Given the potential for this type of account to be of interest to payment system participants, the Board proposes to establish guidelines to be considered in evaluating requests for joint accounts to facilitate settlement for payment systems in the United States. The Board seeks comment on all aspects of the proposed guidelines.

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 2017. The Regulation D amendments set the amount of total reservable liabilities of each depository institution that is subject to a zero percent reserve requirement in 2017 at $15.5 million (up from $15.2 million in 2016). This amount is known as the reserve requirement exemption amount. The Regulation D amendments also set the amount of net transaction accounts at each depository institution (over the reserve requirement exemption amount) that is subject to a three percent reserve requirement in 2017 at $115.1 million (up from $110.2 million in 2016). This amount is known as the low reserve tranche. The adjustments to both of these amounts are derived using statutory formulas specified in the Federal Reserve Act. The Board is also announcing changes in two other amounts, the nonexempt deposit cutoff level and the reduced reporting limit, that are used to determine the frequency at which depository institutions must submit deposit reports.