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OCC Announces Additional Foreclosure Review Settlement
On August 23, the OCC announced an amended consent order with one of the financial institutions that entered into a consent order in April 2011 to resolve allegations that the institutions engaged in improper mortgage servicing and foreclosure processing practices. The agreement follows numerous others released earlier this year and requires the institution to pay roughly $43 million, including $37 million in cash payments to more than 32,000 borrowers. The amendment also effectively ends the Independent Foreclosure Review process set forth under the original consent order for the institution and its customers.
Prudential Regulators Propose Leverage Ratio Rule
On August 20, the Federal Reserve Board, the OCC, and the FDIC proposed a rule to strengthen the leverage ratio standards for the largest U.S. banking organizations. The proposed rule is the same as that approved last month by the FDIC and the OCC. The rule would require bank holding companies with more than $700 billion in consolidated total assets or $10 trillion in assets under custody to maintain a tier 1 capital leverage buffer of at least 2% above the minimum supplementary leverage ratio requirement of 3%, for a total of 5%. Failure to exceed the 5% ratio would subject covered companies to restrictions on discretionary bonus payments and capital distributions. The proposed rule also would require insured depository institutions of covered holding companies to meet a 6% supplementary leverage ratio to be considered “well capitalized” for prompt corrective action purposes. The proposal suggests a phase-in period for the rule with an effective date of January 1, 2018. Comments on the proposal are due by October 21, 2013.
OCC Updates Handbook to Reflect Current CRE Lending Guidance
On August 20, the OCC issued bulletin OCC 2013-19, which attaches the Commercial Real Estate Lending booklet of the Comptroller’s Handbook to replace the OCC’s Commercial Real Estate and Construction Lending booklet. The new booklet reflects guidance issued since the prior booklet was released in 1995. That updated guidance relates to prudent loan workouts, management of concentrations, stress testing, updated interagency appraisal guidelines, and statutory and regulatory developments in environmental risk management. The booklet also incorporates discussions of statutes and regulations governing federal savings associations.
OCC Issues Bulletin on Lending Limits Rule
On August 15, the OCC issued bulletin OCC 2013-17 regarding its final lending limits rule. In June 2012, the OCC promulgated an interim final rule to apply its existing lending limits rule to certain credit exposures arising from derivative transactions and securities financing transactions, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. With the interim final rule and subsequent actions, the OCC extended the compliance date while it accepted comments and prepared a final rule. As explained in the bulletin, the final rule outlines permissible methods available to banks to measure credit exposures arising from derivative transactions and securities financing transactions. For derivative transactions, banks can generally choose to measure credit exposure through (i) the Conversion Factor Matrix Method, which uses a lookup table that locks in the attributable exposure at the execution of the transaction, (ii) the Current Exposure Method, which replaces the Remaining Maturity Method included in the interim final rule and provides a more precise calculation of credit exposure, or (iii) an OCC-approved internal model. For securities financing transactions, the final rule specifically exempts securities financing transactions relating to Type I securities and for other securities financing transactions allows banks to (i) lock in the attributable exposure based on the type of transaction, (ii) use an OCC-approved internal model, or (iii) use the Basel Collateral Haircut Method, which applies standard supervisory haircuts for measuring counterparty credit risk for such transactions under the capital rules’ Basel II Advanced Internal Ratings-Based Approach or the Basel III Advanced Approaches. The final rule also extends the compliance period through October 1, 2013.
Prudential Regulators Propose Stress Test Guidance for Mid-Size Institutions
On July 30, the OCC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve Board proposed guidance for stress tests conducted by institutions with more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion in total consolidated assets. Under Dodd-Frank Act mandated regulations adopted by the regulators last October, such firms are required to conduct annual company-run stress tests starting in October 2013. The guidance discusses supervisory expectations for stress test practices, provides examples of practices that would be consistent with those expectations, and offers additional details about stress test methodologies. It also underscores the importance of stress testing as an ongoing risk management practice that supports a company’s forward-looking assessment of its risks and better equips the company to address a range of macroeconomic and financial outcomes. Comments on the proposed guidance are due by September 25, 2013.
Prudential Regulators Encourage Private Student Loan Workouts
On July 25, the FDIC, the OCC, and the Federal Reserve Board issued a joint statement to encourage financial institutions to “work constructively with private student loan borrowers experiencing financial difficulties.” The statement explains that prudent workout arrangements are consistent with safe-and-sound lending practices and are generally in the long-term best interest of both the financial institution and the borrower. Specifically, under the Retail Credit Policy, which covers student loans, “extensions, deferrals, renewals, and rewrites of closed-end loans can be used to help borrowers overcome temporary financial difficulties.” As such, the agencies promise not to criticize institutions for engaging in prudent workout arrangements with borrowers who have encountered financial problems, even if the restructured loans result in adverse credit classifications or troubled debt restructurings in accordance with accounting requirements under GAAP. Further, the regulators state that modification programs should provide borrowers with clear and easily accessible practical information about the available options, general eligibility criteria, and the process for requesting a modification.
Prudential Regulators Finalize Regulatory Capital Rule, Propose New Leverage Ratio for Large Banks
On July 9, the FDIC and the OCC approved a final rule to implement the risk-based and leverage capital requirements in the Basel III framework and relevant provisions mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The same rule was approved on July 2 by the Federal Reserve Board. The final rule (i) increases the minimum common equity tier 1 capital requirement from 2% to 4.5% of risk-weighted assets; (ii) increases the minimum tier 1 capital requirement from 4% to 6% of risk-weighted assets; and (iii) adds a new capital conservation buffer of 2.5% of risk-weighted assets. The rule also establishes a minimum leverage ratio of 4% for all banking organizations. In response to concerns raised by smaller and community banking organizations, the regulators did not finalize more onerous capital requirements that would have substantially increased the risk-weightings for residential mortgages, as explained in more detail in our recent post. The final rule does not change the more stringent limits on the inclusion of mortgage servicing assets and deferred tax assets in regulatory capital calculations, but does extend the phase-in period for community banks. Internationally active banks must begin to implement the new capital rules in January 2014, while all other banking organizations will have until January 2015 to begin to phase in the new capital requirements. Also on July 9, the FDIC and the OCC approved a proposed rule that would require bank holding companies with more than $700 billion in consolidated total assets or $10 trillion in assets under custody to maintain a tier 1 capital leverage buffer of at least 2% above the minimum supplementary leverage ratio requirement of 3%, for a total of 5%. Failure to exceed the 5% ratio would subject covered companies to restrictions on discretionary bonus payments and capital distributions. The proposed rule also would require insured depository institutions of covered holding companies to meet a 6% supplementary leverage ratio to be considered “well capitalized” for prompt corrective action purposes. The proposal suggests a phase-in period for the rule with an effective date of January 1, 2018. Comments on the proposal are due 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
OCC Names Head of Large Bank Supervision
On July 10, the OCC named Martin Pfinsgraff as Senior Deputy Comptroller for Large Bank Supervision. Mr. Pfinsgraff has been filling that role on an acting basis since Michael Brosnan left the position to become Examiner-in-Charge of an OCC-supervised institution. Mr. Pfinsgraff previously served as Deputy Comptroller for Credit and Market Risk and prior to joining the OCC held senior positions with iJet International, Prudential Insurance Company, and Prudential Investment Corporation.
Virginia Federal District Court Dismisses Shareholder Derivative Action Related to Credit Card Issuer's Settlements with OCC, CFPB
On June 21, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed a shareholder derivative action against a national bank’s officers and directors that was based on the bank’s settlements with the CFPB and OCC over allegedly deceptive marketing of ancillary products. In re Capital One Derivative S’holder Litig., No. 1:12-cv-1100 (E.D. Va. June 21, 2013). The shareholders, relying on Delaware law, alleged that the officers and directors breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty, committed corporate waste, and were unjustly enriched by failing to prevent the allegedly deceptive sales practices at the bank’s third-party call centers which led to the consent orders. The court held that the shareholders did not adequately allege corporate waste because the bank’s settlement payments were not “transfers of assets with no corporate purpose” but instead achieved final resolution of the investigations. The unjust enrichment claim failed because the shareholders did not allege any facts indicating a relationship between the officers and directors’ compensation and the settlements with the agencies. With respect to the duty of loyalty claim, the shareholders alleged two theories: (i) that the officers and directors failed to implement controls that would have prevented the alleged misconduct, and (ii) that defendants ignored numerous “red flags” that should have alerted them to the alleged misconduct. First, the controls theory failed because the shareholders could not satisfy the demanding Caremark standard, which requires an utter failure to implement any controls. Second, most of the alleged red flags were either not actually red flags at all or there were no allegations that the individual officers and directors were aware of them. However, as to a small number of the alleged red flags, the court found the claims sufficiently plausible to allow the shareholders an opportunity to amend their complaint to add additional facts.
OCC Issues Semiannual Risk Report, Highlights Cyber Security and Anti-Money Laundering Risk
On June 18, the OCC released its Semiannual Risk Perspective, which assesses risks facing national banks and federal savings associations with regard to: (i) the operating environment, (ii) condition and performance of the banking system, (iii) funding, liquidity, and interest rate risk, and (iv) regulatory actions. Among the many issues reviewed in the report, the OCC noted that cyber threats continue to grow in sophistication and require heightened awareness and appropriate resources to identify and mitigate the associated risks. It also stated that BSA/AML threats are increasing as a result of changing methods of money laundering and an increase in the volume and sophistication of electronic banking fraud, while compliance programs are failing to evolve or incorporate appropriate controls into new products and services.