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OCC Bulletin 2021-66 | December 21, 2021
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Chief Executive Officers of All National Banks and Federal Savings Associations; Department and Division Heads; All Examining Personnel; and Other Interested Parties
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) today issued an interagency statement on the optional community bank leverage ratio framework. The temporary relief measures affecting the framework will expire on December 31, 2021.1 Beginning on January 1, 2022, the community bank leverage ratio requirement will revert to greater than 9 percent as established under the 2019 final rule.2 The community bank leverage ratio framework includes a two-quarter grace period that allows a qualifying community bank3 to continue reporting under the framework and be considered “well capitalized” as long as its leverage ratio falls no more than 1 percentage point below the applicable community bank leverage ratio requirement.
The community bank leverage ratio framework is optional. A qualifying community bank with less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets as of the report date and that meets other prudential criteria is eligible to opt into the framework.
Please contact Benjamin Pegg, Risk Expert, or Jung Sup Kim, Risk Specialist, Capital Policy, at (202) 649-6370; or Carl Kaminski, Assistant Director, or Daniel Perez, Counsel, Chief Counsel’s Office, at (202) 649-5490.
Grovetta N. Gardineer Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy
1 Refer to 85 Fed. Reg. 64003 (October 9, 2020).
2 Refer to 84 Fed. Reg. 61776 (November 13, 2019).
3 A qualifying community bank is a national bank or federal savings association that has total consolidated assets of less than $10 billion and that meets other prudential criteria.