Office of Thrift Supervision February 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Banking Supervisory Agencies \1\, as part of their continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invite the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Banking Supervisory Agencies are soliciting comments concerning the Suspicious Activity Report by Depository Institutions, which is being revised and reformatted to standardize this report with suspicious activity reports being filed by other financial institutions. The report also is being revised to support joint filing, providing the necessary data blocks and instructions for completing a jointly filed suspicious activity report. The instructions limit joint filing to those suspicious activities that do not involve insider abuse.

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is proposing to change its regulations concerning corporate governance to add a preapproved bylaw that federally chartered savings associations and mutual holding companies (collectively, federal savings associations) may adopt. The bylaw would preclude persons who, among other things, are under indictment for or have been convicted of certain crimes involving dishonesty or breach of trust, or have been subject to certain cease and desist orders entered by any of the banking agencies, from being members of the federal savings association's Board of Directors. The proposal would also permit federal savings associations to adopt bylaws that bar such persons from nominating individuals for membership on the federal savings association's Board of Directors. The proposal is intended to permit federal savings associations to protect their businesses from the adverse effects that are likely to result when the reputation of their board members is not conducive to maintaining the public's trust.

The OTS, Board, FDIC, NCUA, and OCC (collectively, the ``Agencies''), have finalized the Interagency Advisory on the Unsafe and Unsound Use of Limitation of Liability Provisions in External Audit Engagement Letters (``Advisory''). The Advisory informs financial institutions'' boards of directors, audit committees, and management that they should not enter into agreements that incorporate unsafe and unsound external auditor limitation of liability provisions with respect to engagements for financial statement audits, audits of internal control over financial reporting, and attestations on management's assessment of internal control over financial reporting.