- Asset threshold increased from $3 billion to $6 billion in total assets for qualifying banks eligible for less onerous 18-month exam cycle
- Approximately 50 additional OCC-regulated institutions eligible for longer exam cycle
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency today published an interim final rule that raises the asset threshold for certain supervised institutions with less than $6 billion in total assets to qualify for an 18-month on-site examination cycle, pursuant to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.
Under the interim final rule, approximately 50 additional OCC-regulated institutions will be eligible to extend their exam cycles from once every 12 months to once every 18 months. The longer exam cycle will yield cost savings for these financial institutions and enable them to reallocate resources to other activities to better serve their customers.
“The OCC is proud to support President Trump’s and Secretary Scott Bessent’s vision of parallel prosperity and a strong community banking system that thrives and drives economic growth,” said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould. “The community bank comeback is underway, and today’s action supports that effort by reducing burden for these banks that are vital to the strength of local economies across America, so they can focus more of their time and energy on serving their customers.”
The OCC remains committed to addressing the challenges for community banks and has taken a series of actions to rightsize regulatory burden and tailor supervisory activities so these institutions may grow and continue to meet the needs of the customers and small businesses they serve. These actions include:
- Creating a distinct line of supervision focused on community banks and the issues that affect them most.
- Removing OCC examination activities that were previously required by OCC policy and instead tailoring examination scope and frequency in a manner that is consistent with risk-based supervision.
- Increasing the upper asset range of the community bank supervision portfolio to give them room to grow organically or through acquisition, without facing the increased supervision scrutiny that comes with being a larger bank assigned to other supervision portfolios.
- Updating the OCC’s model risk management guidance to clarify that model risk management should be risk-based, tailored, and commensurate with a bank’s size, complexity, and extent of model use, excluding community banks from unnecessary requirements.
- Simplifying licensing requirements and alleviating unnecessary compliance burdens by expanding community banks’ access to expedited or reduced filing procedures.
- Establishing Community Bank Minimum Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering examination procedures to tailor supervisory activities to community banks’ generally low money laundering/terrorist financing risk levels and eliminating Money Laundering Risk System data collection requirements.
- Reducing complexity by clarifying that the OCC will not use expanded procedures—generally unsuitable to community banks—when examining community banks’ retail nondeposit investment product offerings.
- Eliminating duplicative data collection requirements, further alleviating regulatory reporting burden for community banks.
- Proposing guidance for a simplified Community Reinvestment Act strategic plan process to help community banks better focus their resources on local credit needs and clarify measurable goals and other requirements.
- Issuing a revised compliance guide for the community bank leverage ratio framework as part of its ongoing work to provide regulatory relief for community banks.
