12 CFR Part 5, Subpart D - Other Changes in Activities and Operations

As part of its review under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is proposing to revise certain of its rules to remove outdated or otherwise unnecessary provisions. Specifically, the OCC is proposing to: Revise certain licensing rules related to chartering applications, business combinations involving Federal mutual savings associations, and notices for changes in permanent capital; clarify national bank director oath requirements; revise certain fiduciary activity requirements for national banks and Federal savings associations, including increasing the asset size limit for mini-funds; remove certain financial disclosure requirements for national banks; remove certain unnecessary regulatory reporting, accounting, and management policy requirements for Federal savings associations; revise the electronic activities provisions for Federal savings associations; integrate and update OCC rules for national banks and Federal savings associations relating to municipal securities dealers, Securities Exchange Act disclosure rules, and securities offering disclosure rules, including providing for the electronic submission of required filings and applying the less burdensome national bank rule to Federal savings associations; update and revise recordkeeping and confirmation requirements for national banks' and Federal savings associations' securities transactions; integrate and update rules relating to insider and affiliate transactions; and make other technical and clarifying changes.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is adopting a final rule to integrate its rules relating to policies and procedures for corporate activities and transactions involving national banks and Federal savings associations, to revise some of these rules in order to eliminate unnecessary requirements consistent with safety and soundness and to promote fairness in supervision, and to make other technical and conforming changes. The OCC also is adopting amendments to update its rules for agency organization and function.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is amending its interim final rule making Basel III conforming amendments related to cross-references, subordinated debt and limits based on regulatory capital. The interim final rule, published in the Federal Register on February 28, 2014, revised and clarified the OCC's rules governing subordinated debt issued by national banks and Federal savings associations to make those rules consistent with the 2013 revised capital rules. The OCC is further clarifying the subordinated debt rules for national banks by moving certain provisions from national bank guidance to the rules and making other clarifying and technical amendments.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is proposing to integrate its rules relating to policies and procedures for corporate activities and transactions involving national banks and Federal savings associations, to revise some of these rules in order to eliminate unnecessary requirements consistent with safety and soundness, and to make other technical and conforming changes. The OCC also is proposing amendments to update its rules for agency organization and function.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is removing regulations concerning registration of mortgage loan originators, and regulations relating to privacy of consumer financial information. Rulemaking authority for these rules transferred to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on July 21, 2011 pursuant to Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and these OCC rules are therefore no longer operative. The OCC also is amending its regulations to update its address to reflect its move to a new headquarters building, to update the address of its Freedom of Information Act web portal, and to update its Web site address.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is making technical and conforming amendments to its regulations governing national banks and Federal savings associations to make those regulations consistent with the recently adopted Basel III Capital Framework. As part of these technical amendments, the OCC is revising and clarifying its regulations governing subordinated debt applicable to national banks and Federal savings associations.

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 Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively, the agencies) are seeking comment on three Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) that would revise and replace the agencies' current capital rules. In this NPR, the agencies are proposing to revise their risk-based and leverage capital requirements consistent with agreements reached by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in “Basel III: A Global Regulatory Framework for More Resilient Banks and Banking Systems” (Basel III). The proposed revisions would include implementation of 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 capital rules, a supplementary leverage ratio that incorporates a broader set of exposures in the denominator measure. Additionally, consistent with Basel III, the agencies are proposing to apply 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. This NPR also would establish more conservative standards for including an instrument in regulatory capital. As discussed in the proposal, the revisions set forth in this NPR are consistent with section 171 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), which requires the agencies to establish minimum risk-based and leverage capital requirements. In connection with the proposed changes to the agencies' capital rules in this NPR, the agencies are also seeking comment on the two related NPRs published elsewhere in today's Federal Register . The two related NPRs are discussed further in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION .