US Federal Reserve Board Adopts Revised Forms, Including Bank Merger Act Application Form
On March 15, 2018, the U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System adopted a proposal to extend for three years, with revisions, certain forms, including the Interagency Notice of Change in Control (FR 2081a), Interagency Notice of Change in Director or Senior Executive Officer (FR 2081b), Interagency Biographical and Financial Report (FR 2081c) and the Interagency Bank Merger Act Application (FR 2070) forms. The revisions to the Interagency Bank Merger Act Application form include additional requested items, such as projected financial statements and capital figures as of the end of each of the first three years of operation following consummation of the merger. In doing so, the Federal Reserve Board noted that the form's prior requirement of one year of projected financial statements was not viewed as sufficient. The Federal Reserve Board also explained that the additional requested items in the revised Bank Merger Act Application form are typically requested in follow-up questions in connection with the application, and that the changes will increase the efficiency with which Bank Merger Act applications are processed. The revisions to the Bank Merger Act Application form also include clarifications, the deletion of certain requested items, definition updates and minor editing changes. The notice highlights that the Federal Reserve Board worked with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in drafting the revisions to these forms.
The full text of the Federal Reserve Board notice is available at: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-03-15/pdf/2018-05255.pdf.
US House of Representatives Passes Financial Institution Examination Reform Bill
On March 15, 2018, the U.S. House of Representative passed the Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act (H.R. 4545) by a vote of 283-133. The bill would amend the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act of 1978 to require federal financial institution regulatory agencies to issue final examination reports within 60 days of the later of a financial institution's exit report or the provision of additional information by a financial institution regarding its examination. The bill would also permit financial institutions to obtain an independent review of material supervisory determinations contained in a final report of examination, including the right to an Administrative Law hearing. The bill would also establish the Office of Independent Examination Review, which, among other things, would receive and investigate complaints from financial institutions with respect to examinations, examination practices and examination reports, review written examination procedures of federal financial regulatory agencies and conduct supervisory appeals.
The full text of the bill is available at: https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr4545/BILLS-115hr4545eh.pdf.
US Senate Passes Financial Regulatory Reform Bill
On March 14, 2018, the U.S. Senate passed a significant financial services reform bill 67-31 on a bipartisan basis that would eliminate certain requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act, including, most notably, increasing, from $50 billion to $250 billion, the threshold at which a large banking organization automatically becomes a systemically important financial institution that is subject to stricter supervisory standards. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) would also (i) exempt banks with less than $10 billion total consolidated assets from the Volcker Rule; (ii) exempt certain funds placed on deposit with certain central banks by a custodial bank from the calculation of the supplementary leverage ratio; (iii) reduce certain reporting and supervision requirements applicable to community banks; and (iv) ease certain securities law requirements. A number of the provisions of the bill track legislation that has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives over the past year, the most significant of which is the Financial Choice Act of 2017, which would amount to an omnibus revision of the Dodd-Frank Act. The House will now have to consider the Senate bill, and the differences between the two bills will likely be negotiated and resolved in a Conference Committee of the House and Senate.
The full text of the bill is available at: https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/s2155/BILLS-115s2155es.pdf.
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