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Joint Press Release

For immediate release

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Office of Thrift Supervision

September 5, 2006

Agencies Seek Public Comment on Basel II and Market Risk Proposed Rulemakings
The federal bank and thrift regulatory agencies announced today that they will request
public comment on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) that would implement new riskbased capital requirements in the United States for large, internationally active banking
organizations. The NPR details the agencies' plans for implementing the Basel Committee
on Banking Supervision's (BCBS) new capital accord (Basel II) that was issued in 2004.
The agencies also will request comment on proposed Basel II supervisory reporting
templates.
The Federal Reserve Board (Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision
(OTS) first adopted risk-based capital standards in 1989. Those standards were based on the
Basel Capital Accord that the BCBS originally issued in 1988 (Basel I). For banking
organizations that meet qualifying criteria, the Basel II NPR would replace U.S. rules
implementing Basel I. The proposed framework would be mandatory for large,
internationally active banking organizations and optional for others.
In March of this year, the Board released a preliminary draft of the Basel II NPR. The
version being made available today differs in some respects from the March draft. For
example, the agencies have responded to certain requests from the industry to seek comment
on alternative risk-based capital approaches and have clarified that in evaluating credit risk,
banking organizations should not rely on the possibility of U.S. government financial
assistance, except for the financial assistance that the government has legally committed to
provide. The final document, which will be published in the Federal Register shortly, should
be used as the basis for comments.
Separately, the agencies announced that they will request comment on proposed revisions to
the market risk capital rules that the OCC, Board, and FDIC have used since 1997 for
banking organizations with significant exposure to market risk. Under the market risk
capital rule, certain banking organizations are required to calculate a capital requirement for
the general market risk of their covered positions and the specific risk of their covered debt
and equity positions. The proposed revisions would enhance the rule's risk sensitivity and
would require public disclosures of certain qualitative and quantitative market risk
information.
The notice of proposed rulemaking on the market risk capital rule would implement changes
the BCBS approved in 2005 and also would apply to certain savings associations, which

currently are not covered under the rule. The agencies will also seek comment on proposed
supervisory reporting templates related to the market risk capital rule.
The Board, FDIC, OCC and OTS request comments on the proposals within 120 days of
publication in the Federal Register. The proposals are attached.
The agencies remain committed to issuing in the near future additional proposed revisions to
their existing risk-based capital rules, known as Basel IA, in a timeframe that will allow for
overlapping comment periods for both the Basel II NPR and the NPR for the proposed Basel
IA revisions.
Basel II
Notice of proposed rulemaking
Draft Federal Register notice and supervisory reporting templates (501 KB PDF)
Market risk
Notice of proposed rulemaking (291 KB PDF)
Notice of proposed rulemaking (161 KB TXT)
Draft Federal Register notice and supervisory reporting templates (71 KB PDF)
Media Contacts:
Federal Reserve Susan Stawick
FDIC
David Barr
OCC
Kevin Mukri
OTS
Katie Fitzgerald

(202) 452-2955
(202) 898-6992
(202) 874-5770
202-906-6677

2006 Banking and consumer regulatory policy
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Last update: September 5, 2006