12 CFR 5 - RULES, POLICIES, AND PROCEDURES FOR CORPORATE ACTIVITIES

Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) contains two directives to Federal agencies including the OCC. First, section 939A directs all Federal agencies to review, no later than one year after enactment, any regulation that requires the use of an assessment of creditworthiness of a security or money market instrument and any references to, or requirements in, such regulations regarding credit ratings. Second, the agencies are required to remove any references to, or requirements of reliance on, credit ratings and substitute such standard of credit-worthiness as each agency determines is appropriate. The statute further provides that the agencies shall seek to establish, to the extent feasible, uniform standards of creditworthiness, taking into account the entities the agencies regulate and the purposes for which those entities would rely on such standards. Through this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), the OCC seeks comment on a proposal to revise its regulations pertaining to investment securities, securities offerings, and foreign bank capital equivalency deposits to replace references to credit ratings with alternative standards of creditworthiness. The OCC also is proposing to amend its regulations pertaining to financial subsidiaries of national banks to better reflect the language of the underlying statute, as amended by section 939(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is adopting amendments to its regulations governing organization and functions, availability and release of information, post-employment restrictions for senior examiners, and assessment of fees to incorporate the transfer of certain functions of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) to the OCC pursuant to Title III of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The OCC also is amending its rules pertaining to preemption and visitorial powers to implement various sections of the Act; change in control of credit card banks and trust banks to implement section 603 of the Act; and deposit-taking by uninsured Federal branches to implement section 335 of the Act.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published in the Federal Register on May 26, 2011, a notice of proposed rulemaking entitled “Office of Thrift Supervision Integration; Dodd-Frank Act Implementation.” Inadvertently, an incorrect E-mail address was used in the ADDRESSES caption for submission of public comments directly to the OCC via electronic mail. This document corrects that E-mail address.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is proposing to amend its regulations governing organization and functions, availability and release of information, and post-employment restrictions for senior examiners; and assessment of fees to incorporate the transfer of certain functions of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) to the OCC pursuant to Title III of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The OCC also is proposing amendments to its rules pertaining to change in control of credit card banks and trust banks to implement section 603 of the Act; deposit-taking by uninsured Federal branches to implement section 335 of the Act; and its preemption and visitorial powers rules, subpart D, to implement various sections of the Act.