Important Notices

Comment Sought on Proposed Capital Rules

To:  Chief Executive Officers
From:  Teveia R. Barnes, Commissioner of Financial Institutions 

In June 2012, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved joint proposals for comment that would revise their current regulatory capital standards.  The public comment period for these proposals ends on October 22, 2012.  The Basel III notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) focuses primarily on strengthening the level of regulatory capital requirements and improving the quality of capital.  The Standardized Approach NPR proposes a number of enhancements to the risk-sensitivity of the agencies’ capital standards.

The DFI encourages you to write comment letters to the federal banking regulators as to the immediate and possible future impact, if any, of the Basel III proposed rule on your bank and its customers.

For your information, the federal banking regulators have released a Capital Estimation Tool incorporating proposed Basel III rules.  The tool is a six-step Excel workbook with instructions.  The tool also provides an email address for technical questions.

The estimation tools are available for banks, savings associations and their holding companies at:  http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/capital/calculator.html.
Additionally, the FDIC has a resource page at: http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/capital/sessions.html.  Comments may be submitted to comments@fdic.gov.