12 CFR Part 225, Subpart K - Proprietary Trading and Relationships With Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds

The Board is inviting comment on a notice of proposed rulemaking (proposal) that would integrate the Board's regulatory capital rule (capital rule) and the Board's Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and stress test rules in order to simplify the capital regime applicable to firms subject to the capital plan rule. The proposal would amend the Board's capital plan rule, capital rule, and stress testing rules, and make amendments to the Stress Testing Policy Statement that was proposed for public comment on December 15, 2017. Under the proposal, the Board's supervisory stress test would be used to establish the size of a stress capital buffer requirement and a stress leverage buffer requirement. The proposal would apply to bank holding companies with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets and U.S. intermediate holding companies of foreign banking organizations established pursuant to Regulation YY. The proposal would not apply to any community bank, any bank holding company with total consolidated assets of less than $50 billion, or to any state member bank or savings and loan holding company. The proposal would be effective on December 31, 2018. Under the proposal, a firm's first stress capital buffer and stress leverage buffer requirements would generally be effective on October 1, 2019.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule to amend the agencies' regulations requiring appraisals of real estate for certain transactions. The final rule increases the threshold level at or below which appraisals are not required for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $500,000. The final rule defines commercial real estate transaction as a real estate-related financial transaction that is not secured by a single 1-to-4 family residential property. It excludes all transactions secured by a single 1-to-4 family residential property, and thus construction loans secured by a single 1-to-4 family residential property are excluded. For commercial real estate transactions exempted from the appraisal requirement as a result of the revised threshold, regulated institutions must obtain an evaluation of the real property collateral that is consistent with safe and sound banking practices.

Section 2 of the Depository Institutions Disaster Relief Act of 1992 (DIDRA) authorizes the agencies to make exceptions to statutory and regulatory appraisal requirements under Title XI of FIRREA. The exceptions are available for transactions involving real property located within an area in a state or territory declared to be a major disaster by the President if the agencies determine, and describe by publication of a regulation or order, that the exceptions would facilitate recovery from the disaster and would be consistent with safety and soundness. In this statement and order, the agencies exercise their authority to grant temporary exceptions to the FIRREA appraisal requirements for real estate-related financial transactions, provided certain criteria are met, in areas of Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands that have been declared major disasters by President Trump as a result of the severe storms and flooding caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The expiration date for the exceptions in each area is three years after the date the President declared the state or territory a major disaster.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are inviting comment on a proposed rule to amend the agencies' regulations requiring appraisals of real estate for certain transactions. The proposal would increase the threshold level at or below which appraisals would not be required for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. This proposed change to the appraisal threshold reflects comments the agencies received through the regulatory review process required by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) and completed in early 2017. For commercial real estate transactions with a value at or below the proposed threshold, the amended rule would require institutions to obtain an evaluation of the real property collateral that is consistent with safe and sound banking practices if the institution does not obtain an appraisal by a state certified or licensed appraiser.

The Board is adopting a final rule that revises the capital plan and stress test rules for bank holding companies with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets and U.S. intermediate holding companies (IHCs) of foreign banking organizations. Under the final rule, large and noncomplex firms (those with total consolidated assets of at least $50 billion but less than $250 billion, nonbank assets of less than $75 billion, and that are not U.S. global-systemically important banks) are no longer subject to the provisions of the Board's capital plan rule whereby the Board may object to a capital plan on the basis of qualitative deficiencies in the firm's capital planning process. Accordingly, these firms will no longer be subject to the qualitative component of the annual Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR). The final rule also modifies certain regulatory reports to collect additional information on nonbank assets and to reduce reporting burdens for large and noncomplex firms. For all bank holding companies subject to the capital plan rule, the final rule simplifies the initial applicability provisions of both the capital plan and the stress test rules, reduces the amount of additional capital distributions that a bank holding company may make during a capital plan cycle without seeking the Board's prior approval, and extends the range of potential as-of dates the Board may use for the trading and counterparty scenario component used in the stress test rules. The final rule does not apply to bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of less than $50 billion or to any state member bank or savings and loan holding company.

On September 30, 2016, the Board published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) to adopt additional limitations on physical commodity trading activities conducted by financial holding companies under complementary authority granted pursuant to section 4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act and clarify certain existing limitations on those activities; amend the Board's risk-based capital requirements to better reflect the risks associated with a financial holding company's physical commodity activities; rescind the findings underlying the Board orders authorizing certain financial holding companies to engage in energy management services and energy tolling; remove copper from the list of metals that bank holding companies are permitted to own and store as an activity closely related to banking; and increase transparency regarding physical commodity activities of financial holding companies through more comprehensive regulatory reporting. Due to the range and complexity of the issues addressed in the NPR, the public comment period has been extended until February 20, 2017. This action will allow interested persons additional time to analyze the proposal and prepare their comments.

Section 2 of the Depository Institutions Disaster Relief Act of 1992 (DIDRA) authorizes the Agencies to make exceptions to statutory and regulatory appraisal requirements under Title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). The exceptions are available for transactions involving real property located within an area declared to be a major disaster area by the President if the Agencies determine, and describe by publication of a regulation or order, that the exceptions would facilitate recovery from the disaster and would be consistent with safety and soundness. In this statement and order, the Agencies exercise their authority to grant temporary exceptions to the FIRREA appraisal requirements for real estate related transactions, provided certain criteria are met, in the Louisiana parishes declared a major disaster area by President Obama on August 14, 2016, as a result of the severe storms and flooding in Louisiana. The expiration date for the exceptions is December 31, 2017.

The Board is adopting a final rule that makes targeted amendments to its capital plan and stress test rules. For bank holding companies with more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion in total consolidated assets and savings and loan holding companies with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion, the final rule modifies certain mandatory capital action assumptions in the stress test rules and delays the application of the company-run stress test requirements to savings and loan holding companies until January 1, 2017. For bank holding companies that have total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and state member banks that are subject to the Board's advanced approaches capital requirements, the final rule delays the use of the supplementary leverage ratio for one year and indefinitely defers the use of the advanced approaches risk-based capital framework in the capital plan and stress test rules. For bank holding companies that have total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more, the final rule removes the tier 1 common capital ratio requirement, and modifies certain mandatory capital action assumptions. To reflect other recent rulemakings, the final rule also makes other amendments to the capital plan and stress test rules. All changes in the final rule apply as of January 1, 2016, which is the beginning of the next capital planning and stress test cycle.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) published a final rule in the Federal Register on October 11, 2013 (78 FR 62018) regarding Regulatory Capital Rules and another final rule on October 27, 2014 (79 FR 64025) regarding Capital Plan and Stress Test Rules. This publication removes certain expired transitional requirements in Regulations H and Y, resolves certain citation errors, replaces a wrongly duplicated paragraph in Regulation Q, and corrects a typographical error in Regulation YY.

The Board invites comment on a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the capital plan and stress test rules for large bank holding companies and certain banking organizations with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion. The proposed changes would apply beginning with the 2016 capital plan and stress test cycles. For all banking organizations, the proposal would remove the tier 1 common capital ratio requirement. For large bank holding companies, the proposal would modify the stress test capital action assumptions. For banking organizations subject to the advanced approaches, the proposal would delay the incorporation of the supplementary leverage ratio for one year and indefinitely defer the use of the advanced approaches risk-based capital framework in the capital plan and stress test rules. For bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion and savings and loan holding companies with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion, the proposal would eliminate the fixed assumptions regarding dividend payments for company-run stress tests and delay the application of stress testing for these savings and loan holding companies for one year. The proposal would also make certain technical amendments to the capital plan and stress test rules to incorporate changes related to other rulemakings.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, NCUA, Bureau, and FHFA (collectively, the Agencies) are adopting a final rule to implement the minimum requirements in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act) to be applied by participating States in the registration and supervision of appraisal management companies (AMCs). The final rule also implements the minimum requirements in the Dodd-Frank Act for AMCs that are subsidiaries owned and controlled by an insured depository institution and regulated by a Federal financial institutions regulatory agency (Federally regulated AMCs). Under the final rule, these Federally regulated AMCs do not need to register with a State, but are subject to the same minimum requirements as State-regulated AMCs. The final rule also implements the requirement for States to report to the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) the information required by the ASC to administer the new national registry of AMCs (AMC National Registry). In conjunction with this implementation, the FDIC is integrating its appraisal regulations for State nonmember banks and State savings associations.

The Board is adopting final amendments (Final Rule) to the Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement (Regulation Y, Appendix C) (Policy Statement) that: raise from $500 million to $1 billion the asset threshold to qualify for the Policy Statement; and expand the scope of companies eligible under the Policy Statement to include savings and loan holding companies. The Board is also adopting final conforming revisions to Regulation Y and Regulation LL, the Board's regulations governing the operations and activities of bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies, respectively, and Regulation Q, the Board's regulatory capital rules.

The Board is proposing to raise the asset size threshold for determining applicability of the Board's Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement (Regulation Y, Appendix C) (Policy Statement) to $1 billion from $500 million and to expand the scope of the Policy Statement to include savings and loan holding companies that also meet the Policy Statement's requirements. The Board is also proposing to make related and conforming revisions to: Regulation Y and Regulation LL, the Board's regulations governing the operations and activities of bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies, respectively; and Regulation Q, the Board's regulatory capital regulation. Finally, to reduce burden on small non-complex holding companies, the Board is proposing to change the reporting requirements for bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies that meet the requirements of the Policy Statement (as proposed).

The Board is amending the capital plan and stress test rules applicable to bank holding companies with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets and the company-run stress test rules applicable to bank holding companies with more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion in total consolidated assets and savings and loan holding companies and state member banks with more than $10 billion in total consolidated assets to modify, following a transition period, the start date of the capital plan and stress test cycles from October 1 of a calendar year to January 1 of the following calendar year. The final rule makes other changes to the rules, including limiting the ability of a bank holding company with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets to make capital distributions under the capital plan rule if the bank holding company's net capital issuances are less than the amount indicated in its capital plan. The final rule clarifies the application of the capital plan rule to a bank holding company that is a subsidiary of a U.S. intermediate holding company of a foreign banking organization and the characteristics of a stressed scenario to be included in company run stress tests.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, NCUA, Bureau, and FHFA (collectively, the Agencies) are jointly proposing a rule to implement the minimum requirements in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act or Act) to be applied by States in the registration and supervision of appraisal management companies (AMCs). The proposed rule also implements the requirement in the Dodd-Frank Act for States to report to the Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) the information required by the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) to administer the new national registry of appraisal management companies (AMC National Registry or Registry). In conjunction with this implementation, the FDIC is proposing to integrate its appraisal regulations for State nonmember banks and State savings associations.

The Board is adopting a final rule to require a bank holding company with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more to estimate its tier 1 common ratio using the exiting definition for purposes of the Board's capital plan and stress test rules; defer until October 1, 2015, the use of the Board's advanced approaches rule for purposes of the Board's capital planning and stress testing rules; maintain the one-year transition period in the current stress test cycle during which bank holding companies and most state member banks with more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion in total consolidated assets are not required to incorporate the Board's Basel III-based revised regulatory capital framework that the Board approved on July 2, 2013 (revised capital framework); and make minor, conforming changes to the Board's capital plan rule and stress test rules. The final rule maintains all the changes to the Board's capital plan rule and stress test rules that were required under two interim final rules that the Board issued in September 2013, except that under the final rule, no banking organization is required to use the advanced approaches rule for purposes of the capital planning and stress testing rules until 2015.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System published in the Federal Register of October 11, 2013, a document adopting a final rule that revises its risk-based and leverage capital requirements for banking organizations. This document adds an acceleration clause under the capital components and eligibility criteria for regulatory capital instruments and corrects an incorrect citation.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is adopting a final rule that revises its market risk capital rule (market risk rule) to address recent changes to the Country Risk Classifications (CRCs) published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which are referenced in the Board's market risk rule; to clarify the treatment of certain traded securitization positions; to make a technical amendment to the definition of covered position; and to clarify the timing of the required market risk disclosures. These changes conform the Board's current market risk rule to the requirements in the Board's new capital framework and thereby allow the current market risk rule to serve as a bridge until the new capital framework becomes fully effective for all banking organizations.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), are adopting a final rule that revises their risk-based and leverage capital requirements for banking organizations. The final rule consolidates three separate notices of proposed rulemaking that the OCC, Board, and FDIC published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2012, with selected changes. The final rule implements a revised definition of regulatory capital, a new common equity tier 1 minimum capital requirement, a higher minimum tier 1 capital requirement, and, for banking organizations subject to the advanced approaches risk-based capital rules, a supplementary leverage ratio that incorporates a broader set of exposures in the denominator. The final rule incorporates these new requirements into the agencies' prompt corrective action (PCA) framework. In addition, the final rule establishes limits on a banking organization's capital distributions and certain discretionary bonus payments if the banking organization does not hold a specified amount of common equity tier 1 capital in addition to the amount necessary to meet its minimum risk-based capital requirements. Further, the final rule amends the methodologies for determining risk-weighted assets for all banking organizations, and introduces disclosure requirements that would apply to top-tier banking organizations domiciled in the United States with $50 billion or more in total assets. The final rule also adopts changes to the agencies' regulatory capital requirements that meet the requirements of section 171 and section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The final rule also codifies the agencies' regulatory capital rules, which have previously resided in various appendices to their respective regulations, into a harmonized integrated regulatory framework. In addition, the OCC is amending the market risk capital rule (market risk rule) to apply to Federal savings associations, and the Board is amending the advanced approaches and market risk rules to apply to top-tier savings and loan holding companies domiciled in the United States, except for certain savings and loan holding companies that are substantially engaged in insurance underwriting or commercial activities, as described in this preamble.

The Board invites comment on an interim final rule that amends the capital plan and stress test rules to require a bank holding company with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more to estimate its tier 1 common ratio using the methodology currently in effect in 2013 under the existing capital guidelines (not the rules as revised on July 2, 2013). The interim final rule also clarifies when a banking organization would estimate its minimum regulatory capital ratios using the advanced approaches for a given capital plan and stress test cycle and makes minor, technical changes to the capital plan rule.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) proposes to revise its market risk capital rule (market risk rule) to address recent changes to the Country Risk Classifications (CRCs) published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which are referenced in the Board's market risk rule; to clarify the treatment of certain traded securitization positions; to make a technical amendment to the definition of covered position; and to clarify the timing of the required market risk disclosures. These changes would conform the Board's current market risk rule to the requirements in the Board's new capital framework and thereby allow the current market risk rule to serve as a bridge until the new capital framework becomes fully effective for all banking organizations.

The Board is issuing this guidance to provide clarity on the manner in which the conformance period would apply to various activities and investments covered by the requirements of section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act. This guidance is identical to what the Board announced on its public Web site on April 19, 2012.

On April 10, 2012, the Board published in the Federal Register a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comment that would establish the criteria for determining whether a company is “predominantly engaged in financial activities” for purposes of Title I of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. That Federal Register notice omitted the instructions for submitting comments. This document corrects that omission.