FDIC

Federal financial regulators issued a statement to institutions on managing the transition away from LIBOR, encouraging them to continue work to transition to alternative reference rates.

The statement from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council also highlighted the legal and consumer compliance risks associated with inadequate fallback language, when the contractual language does not contemplate LIBOR’s permanent discontinuance.

Read on for more details from the agencies’ statement.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) approved changes at its board meeting June 25 in which the financial federal regulators approved rules modifying the Volcker Rule and the swap margin rule, along with codifying the FDIC’s standards on valid-when-made.

The changes were all supported by the leaders of the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The vice chairman of the FDIC, Martin Gruenberg, voted against all three rules.

Read on for details of the changes, along with reaction from the regulators, industry and consumer groups.

Three banking trade associations wrote to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., asking the prudential regulator not to review or approve a re-submission for federal deposit insurance.

The associations previously objected to the application by Rakuten Card Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Rakuten, Inc., and said the revised application does “little to address” the concerns they previously raised.

Read on for details of the trade associations’ objections to the application.

How strong is the banking industry? Only a pandemic could slow it down – and even then, the industry still made money.

A run of two years of the most profitable quarters in banking history came to an end in the first quarter of 2020, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported. Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency reported that the 5,116 banks insured by the regulator reported an aggregate profit of $18.5 billion in the first quarter.

Read on for more details from the quarterly report, and reaction from industry representatives.

Looking to provide a path forward for lenders considering small-dollar products to offer consumers, federal financial regulators recently issued principles for conducting small-dollar lending.

The principles were released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Read on for details from the agencies’ statement and principles.

Just more than 40 days after comments closed on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) proposed rule, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) finalized the revision to the 1977 standards for determining how banks serve their community needs, particularly in low- and moderate-income communities.

The rule brings clarity to activities which qualify for CRA credit, along with new ways to determine assessment areas.

Read on for more on the OCC’s proposal and reaction from industry and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which joined in the proposal but did not join in the finalized rule.

Federal financial regulators met virtually with the Senate Banking Committee on May 12 to discuss the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Community Reinvestment Act, and the state of their institutions.

The hearing featured representatives from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Read on for details from the hearing, including regulators’ fair lending expectations from PPP lenders.

That includes actions taken by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, by the prudential financial regulators, and by the National Credit Union Administration.

Read on for details of the myriad of actions taken by federal regulators to assist the industry.

The move will lower the leverage ratio from 9 percent to 8 percent, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a joint statement.

Read on for reaction to the move from Moody’s analysts.

The FDIC granted charters to Nelnet Inc. and Square Financial Services, the first approvals from the FDIC in more than a decade.

Read on for more details of the approval and the proposed rule on future ILC charters.