Federal Reserve System – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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. 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.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (each an ``Agency''; together ``we'' or ``Agencies'') are conducting a review of the regulations we have issued in order to identify outdated or otherwise unnecessary regulatory requirements imposed on insured depository institutions, as required by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA). EGRPRA requires the Agencies to organize the regulations into categories and publish groups of categories for comment. In this notice, the Agencies are seeking public comment on regulations in the following categories: Rules of Procedure; Safety and Soundness; and Securities. We have listed these rules on a chart included with this notice. In addition, as we previously announced, the Agencies have expanded the scope of the EGRPRA review to include the Agencies' recently issued final rules. Accordingly, in this notice, the Agencies invite the public to comment on any Agency final rule not included in a previous EGRPRA Federal Register notice. To facilitate identification of these recently issued rules, we have included with this notice a separate chart that lists these rules. Finally, in order to be as inclusive as possible, the Agencies also invite comment during the comment period for this notice on any Agency rule that is issued in final form on or before December 31, 2015. We will list these rules on the EGRPRA Web site, https://egrpra.ffiec.gov/. The public may also comment on any other Agency rule, including rules covered by the three prior notices during the open comment period for this notice.

The Board is adopting amendments to Regulation A (Extensions of Credit by Federal Reserve Banks) to implement the emergency lending authorities provided under the 3rd undesignated paragraph of section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (the FRA) as amended by sections 1101 and 1103 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act). These provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act require the Board, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, to establish by regulation policies and procedures with respect to emergency lending under section 13(3) of the FRA.

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.

Notice is hereby given of the final approval of a proposed information collection by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) under OMB delegated authority. 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 instrument(s) 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.

The Board is adopting a final rule that makes targeted amendments to its capital plan and stress test rules. For bank holding companies with more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion in total consolidated assets and savings and loan holding companies with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion, the final rule modifies certain mandatory capital action assumptions in the stress test rules and delays the application of the company-run stress test requirements to savings and loan holding companies until January 1, 2017. For bank holding companies that have total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and state member banks that are subject to the Board's advanced approaches capital requirements, the final rule delays the use of the supplementary leverage ratio for one year and indefinitely defers the use of the advanced approaches risk-based capital framework in the capital plan and stress test rules. For bank holding companies that have total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more, the final rule removes the tier 1 common capital ratio requirement, and modifies certain mandatory capital action assumptions. To reflect other recent rulemakings, the final rule also makes other amendments to the capital plan and stress test rules. All changes in the final rule apply as of January 1, 2016, which is the beginning of the next capital planning and stress test cycle.

The Board is inviting comment on a proposed rule to promote financial stability by improving the resolvability and resiliency of large, interconnected U.S. bank holding companies and the U.S. operations of large, interconnected foreign banking organizations pursuant to section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and related deduction requirements for all banking organizations subject to the Board's capital rules. Under the proposed rule, a U.S. top-tier bank holding company identified by the Board as a global systemically important banking organization (covered BHC) would be required to maintain outstanding a minimum amount of loss-absorbing instruments, including a minimum amount of unsecured long-term debt, and related buffer. Similarly, the proposed rule would require 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) to maintain outstanding a minimum amount of intra-group loss-absorbing instruments, including a minimum amount of unsecured long-term debt, and related buffer. The proposed rule would also impose restrictions on the other liabilities that a covered BHC or covered IHC may have outstanding. Finally, the proposed rule would require state member banks, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies that are subject to the Board's capital rules to apply a regulatory capital deduction treatment to their investments in unsecured debt issued by covered BHCs.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (each an ``Agency'' and, collectively, the ``Agencies'') are adopting and invite comment on an interim final rule that will exempt certain non-cleared swaps and non- cleared security-based swaps with certain counterparties that qualify for an exception or exemption from clearing from the initial and variation margin requirements promulgated under sections 731 and 764 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ``Dodd-Frank Act'' or the ``Act''). This interim final rule implements Title III of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (``TRIPRA''), which exempts from the Agencies' swap margin rules non-cleared swaps and non-cleared security-based swaps in which a counterparty qualifies for an exemption or exception from clearing under the Dodd-Frank Act. This interim final rule is a companion rule to the final rules adopted by the Agencies to implement section 731 and 764 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Board and the Bureau are publishing final rules amending the official interpretations and commentary for the agencies' regulations that implement the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended TILA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions be adjusted annually by the 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 Board and Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. Based on the annual percentage decrease in the CPI-W as of June 1, 2015, the exemption threshold will remain at $54,600 through December 31, 2016. Because the Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Consumer Leasing Act's threshold for exempt consumer leases, the Board and the Bureau are making similar amendments to each of their respective regulations implementing the Consumer Leasing Act elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.