Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

On May 3, 2021, media outlets reported that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will appoint Michael Hsu to serve as Acting Comptroller of the Currency.  Mr. Hsu currently serves as an Associate Director of the Division of Supervision and Regulation at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he heads the Large Institution Supervision Coordinating Committee (“LISCC”), which oversees the largest U.S. banking organizations.
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Continue Reading Treasury Secretary Yellen to Appoint Acting Comptroller of the Currency

Today, the OCC released an interpretive letter concluding that national banks and federal savings associations (together, “banks”) may permissibly provide cryptocurrency custody services for customers.  The letter, written by Chief Counsel Jonathan Gould, describes custody of cryptocurrency as a modern form of the traditional banking activity of providing safekeeping and custody services, which the agency has previously permitted banks to conduct through electronic means.  The letter also “reaffirms the OCC’s position that national banks may provide permissible banking services to any lawful business they choose, including cryptocurrency businesses, so long as they effectively manage the risks and comply with applicable law.”
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Continue Reading OCC Interpretation Paves Way for Banks to Custody Cryptocurrency

Yesterday, on March 18, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”) announced the creation of a Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (“MMLF”) to provide liquidity support to money market mutual funds (“MMMFs”) by facilitating their sale of certain assets in order to meet redemption requests.  Under the MMLF, the Federal…

Yesterday, on Sunday, March 15, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on U.S. and global economic activity, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (“FOMC”) cut the target range of the federal funds rate to 0 to 1/4 percent until such time as the FOMC is “confident that the economy has weathered recent…

The federal banking agencies issued a final rule today that permits banking organizations not subject to the advanced approaches capital rules to adopt simplifications to the calculation of their regulatory capital beginning January 1, 2020, rather than April 1, 2020 as was originally finalized in July 2019.
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Continue Reading Federal Banking Agencies Permit First Quarter 2020 Adoption of Capital Simplifications Rule

On October 22, 2019, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) issued two letters concluding that three Federal Reserve Supervision and Regulation letters, SR 12-17: Consolidated Supervision Framework for Large Financial Institutions, SR 14-8: Consolidated Recovery Planning for Certain Large Domestic Bank Holding Companies, and SR 11-7: Guidance on Model Risk Management, are “rules” under the Congressional Review Act (“CRA”) and therefore must be submitted to Congress and the Comptroller General for review before they can take effect.  The GAO letters respond to requests made by several senators for determinations of whether the three SR letters, as well as SR 15-7: Governance Structure of the Large Institution Supervision Coordinating Committee (LISCC) Supervisory Program, are rules under the CRA.  The GAO concluded that SR 15-7 is not a rule under the CRA.
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Continue Reading GAO Concludes Three SR Letters Are Rules Under Congressional Review Act

On October 17, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and National Credit Union Administration released for public comment a proposed interagency policy statement on allowances for credit losses (“ACLs”).  The proposed policy statement reflects the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s adoption of the current expected credit losses (“CECL”) methodology.
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Continue Reading Agencies Propose CECL Policy Statement

On April 2, 2019, the federal banking agencies proposed a rule that would require large banking organizations to deduct from their regulatory capital certain investments in total loss-absorbing capacity (“TLAC”) debt issued by global systemically important banking organizations (“G-SIBs”) rather than to risk-weight such investments as is currently done.  The rule is intended to reduce interconnectedness in the financial system by discouraging (but not prohibiting) banking organizations from investing in G-SIBs’ debt, and therefore has important implications for the marketability and liquidity of debt instruments that G-SIBs are required to issue under the Federal Reserve’s TLAC requirements.

In a chart accompanying this blog post, we have compared the key parameters of the interagency proposal to the deduction requirements included in the Federal Reserve’s 2015 TLAC proposal and the Basel Committee’s 2016 final standard.  Comments on the interagency proposal are due June 7, 2019.…

Continue Reading Federal Banking Agencies Propose TLAC Deduction Standard

On March 29, 2019, the board of the FDIC approved a notice of proposed rulemaking that would revise the supplementary leverage ratio (“SLR”) to exclude certain deposits placed at central banks from custodial banks’ SLR denominators, implementing section 402 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (“EGRRCPA”).  The OCC and Federal Reserve are expected to adopt substantially identical proposals.
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Continue Reading Agencies to Revise SLR to Exclude Custodial Deposits at Central Banks

On December 3, 2018, the National Risk Committee (“NRC”) of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) released its Semiannual Risk Perspective for Fall 2018. The report analyzes the condition of the federal banking system using data reported by national banks and federal savings associations as of June 30, 2018. The analysis covers five main areas: banks’ operating environment, bank performance, emerging risks, trends related to key risks, and supervisory actions. In addition to these usual areas, the Fall 2018 report included a special supplement discussing risks related to the easing of credit underwriting standards. A brief summary of each of these areas follows.
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Continue Reading OCC Risk Report Trumpets Strong Bank Performance, But Warns of Emerging Risks