Federal Reserve System – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is inviting public comment on the proposed application of enhanced prudential standards to General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC), a nonbank financial company that the Financial Stability Oversight Council has determined should be supervised by the Board. The Board has assessed the business model, capital structure, risk profile, and systemic footprint of GECC to determine how the enhanced prudential standards should apply, including how to tailor application of the standards to the company. In light of the substantial similarity of GECC's activities and risk profile to that of a similarly-sized bank holding company, the Board is proposing to apply enhanced prudential standards to GECC that are similar to those that apply to large bank holding companies, including: (1) Capital requirements; (2) capital-planning and stress-testing requirements; (3) liquidity requirements; and (4) risk-management and risk-committee requirements. The Board also is proposing to apply certain additional enhanced prudential standards to GECC in light of certain unique aspects related to GECC's activities, risk profile, and structure, including additional independence requirements for GECC's board of directors, restrictions on intercompany transactions between GECC and General Electric Company, and leverage capital requirements that are comparable to the standards that apply to the largest, most systemic banking organizations. In addition, the Board is proposing to require GECC to file certain reports with the Board that are similar to the reports required of bank holding companies.

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 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 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 2015. 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 2015 at $14.5 million (from $13.3 million in 2014). 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 2015 at $103.6 million (from $89.0 million in 2014). 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.

The Board is adopting a final rule (Regulation XX) to implement section 622 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (amending the Bank Holding Company Act to add a new section 14). Section 622 establishes a financial sector concentration limit that generally prohibits a financial company from merging or consolidating with, or acquiring, another company if the resulting company's liabilities upon consummation would exceed 10 percent of the aggregate liabilities of all financial companies. In addition, the final rule establishes reporting requirements for financial companies that do not otherwise report consolidated financial information to the Board or other appropriate Federal banking agency to implement section 14 of the Bank Holding Company Act.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is repealing its Rules of Organization and Procedure of the Consumer Advisory Council. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act repealed the requirement in section 703 of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that the Board establish and operate the Consumer Advisory Council (CAC). Consequently, the Board no longer maintains a CAC and the rules of organization and procedure are no longer necessary.