12 CFR Chapter VI, Subchapter B - FARM CREDIT SYSTEM

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA, Agency, us, our, or we) adopts a final rule that amends our regulations governing investments of both Farm Credit System (FCS or System) banks and associations. The final rule strengthens eligibility criteria for investments that FCS banks purchase and hold, and implements section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act or DFA) by removing references to and requirements for credit ratings and substituting other appropriate standards of creditworthiness. The final rule revises FCA's regulatory approach to investments by FCS associations by limiting the type and amount of investments that an association may hold for risk management purposes.

The OCC and the FDIC (“Agencies”) are adopting a final rule to shorten the standard settlement cycle for securities purchased or sold by national banks, federal savings associations, and FDIC-supervised institutions. The Agencies' final rule is consistent with an industry-wide transition to a two business-day settlement cycle, which is designed to reduce settlement exposure and align settlement practices across all market participants.

The NCUA Board (Board) is amending the definition of member business loan (MBL) in its MBL rule with respect to 1- to 4- family dwellings. This regulatory change conforms to a recent amendment to the Federal Credit Act (FCU Act) by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Economic Growth Act).

The NCUA Board (the Board) is proposing to amend the NCUA's general lending rule to provide federal credit unions (FCUs) with an additional option to offer payday alternative loans (PALs). This proposal would not replace the current PALs rule (PALs I). Rather, it would be an alternative option, with different terms and conditions, for FCUs to offer PALs to their members. Specifically, this proposal (PALs II) would differ from PALs I by modifying the minimum and maximum amount of the loans, modifying the number of loans a member can receive in a rolling six-month period, eliminating the minimum membership requirement, and increasing the maximum maturity for these loans. The Board is proposing to incorporate all other requirements of PALs I into PALs II. The Board is also soliciting comments from interested stakeholders on the possibility of creating a third PALs loan program (PALs III), which could include different fee structures, loan features, maturities, and loan amounts.

The NCUA Board (Board) is amending part 709 of its rules to update and clarify the procedures that apply to claims administration for federally insured credit unions that enter involuntary liquidation. Specifically, the final rule amends the payout priority provision by specifying the conditions that claims in the nature of severance must meet to be allowed as provable claims.

On April 19, 2018, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published in the Federal Register a proposal to modify the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio standards for U.S. top-tier bank holding companies identified as global systemically important bank holding companies, or GSIBs, and certain of their insured depository institution subsidiaries. The proposal also included conforming modifications to the Board's total-loss absorbing capacity and long-term debt rules. The Board and the OCC have determined that an extension of the comment period until June 25, 2018, is appropriate.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) are inviting public comment on a joint proposal to address changes to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) described in Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-13, Topic 326, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (ASU 2016-13), including banking organizations' implementation of the current expected credit losses methodology. Specifically, the proposal would revise the agencies' regulatory capital rules to identify which credit loss allowances under the new accounting standard are eligible for inclusion in regulatory capital and to provide banking organizations the option to phase in the day-one adverse effects on regulatory capital that may result from the adoption of the new accounting standard. The proposal also would amend certain regulatory disclosure requirements to reflect applicable changes to U.S. GAAP covered under ASU 2016-13. In addition, the agencies are proposing to make amendments to their stress testing regulations so that covered banking organizations that have adopted ASU 2016-13 would not include the effect of ASU 2016-13 on their provisioning for purposes of stress testing until the 2020 stress test cycle. Finally, the agencies are proposing to make conforming amendments to their other regulations that reference credit loss allowances.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is adopting final amendments to its Regulation A to revise the provisions regarding the establishment of the primary credit rate in a financial emergency and to delete the provisions relating to the use of credit ratings for collateral for extensions of credit under the former Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). The final amendments are intended to allow the regulation to address circumstances in which the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has established a target range for the federal funds rate rather than a single target rate, and to reflect the expiration of the TALF program.

In this document, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) provides notice that it issued Orders, dated March 1, 2018, with respect to stress test reporting as of December 31, 2017, under section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). Summary Instructions and Guidance accompanied the Orders to provide testing scenarios.