WASHINGTON – The federal financial regulatory agencies announced
today that they will publish a joint notice and request for comments on a plan
to identify and eliminate outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome
regulations imposed on insured depository institutions.
The request from the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System (Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of
Thrift Supervision (OTS) is being made pursuant to Section 2222 of the Economic
Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA). The National Credit Union Administration
(NCUA) will be issuing a separate notice and request for comments pursuant to EGRPRA.
Under the 1996 law, the agencies are required to review
their regulations at least once every 10 years. The publication of the notice and request for comments in a
forthcoming issue of the Federal Register will mark the beginning
of a three-year joint effort by the agencies to obtain suggestions from the
industry and public on more streamlined and less burdensome ways to regulate.
EGRPRA requires the agencies to categorize the regulations,
publish the categories for comment, report to Congress on any significant
issues raised by the comments and eliminate unnecessary regulations.
The agencies will publish the categories for which they are
seeking comments twice a year. For this
first publication, comments are requested for the following three categories of
regulations: Applications and Reporting, Powers and Activities, and
International Operations.
To encourage full participation in the EGRPRA review, the
agencies have scheduled five roundtable discussions with bankers and other
interested parties. The sessions will
be held as follows:
June 11, Orlando, FL
June 26, St. Louis, MO
July 15, Denver, CO
September 18, San Francisco, CA
October 15, New York, NY
For more information, please contact:
FDIC: Claude
Rollin, Project Manager, EGRPRA, at (202) 898-8741
Federal Reserve: Pat Robinson, Senior Counsel, at (202)
452-3005
NCUA: Mary Rupp, Attorney, at
(703) 518-6540
OCC: Lee Walzer, Counsel, at
(202) 874-5090
OTS: Robyn Dennis, Manager,
Thrift Policy, at (202) 906-5751
Media Contacts:
Federal Reserve:
Dave Skidmore (202) 452-2955
OCC:
Bob Garsson (202) 874-5770
FDIC:
David Barr (202) 898-6993
OTS:
Sam Eskenazi (202) 906-6677
NCUA:
Cherie Umbel (703) 518-6337