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FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
12 CFR Parts 204
[Regulation D; Docket No. R-0988]
Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions
AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
SUMMARY: The Board is proposing amendments to Regulation D, Reserve
Requirements of Depository Institutions, to move from the current system of
contemporaneous reserve maintenance for institutions that are weekly reporters to a
system under which reserves are maintained on a lagged basis by such institutions.
Under a lagged reserve maintenance system, the reserve maintenance period for a weekly
reporter will begin 30 days after the beginning of a reserve computation period. Under
the current system, the reserve maintenance period begins only two days after the
beginning of the computation period.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before January 12, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Comments, which should refer to Docket No. R-0988, may be mailed to
Mr. William W. Wiles, Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,
20th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20551. Comments
addressed to Mr. Wiles also may be delivered to the Board's mail room between 8:45 a.m.
and 5:15 p.m. and to the security control room outside of those hours. Both the mail
room and the security control room are accessible from the courtyard entrance on 20th
-2Street between Constitution Avenue and C Street, N.W. Comments may be inspected in
Room MP-500 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Whitesell, Section Chief,
Money and Reserves Projections Section, Division of Monetary Affairs (202/452-2967);
Oliver Ireland, Associate General Counsel, (202/452-3625) or Lawranne Stewart, Senior
Attorney (202/452-3513), Legal Division. For the hearing impaired only, contact Diane
Jenkins, Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) (202/452-3544), Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 20th and C Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20551.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
In order to satisfy the reserve requirements imposed under Regulation D
(Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions), depository institutions that file
detailed deposit reports with the Federal Reserve once a week ("weekly reporters") are
required to maintain reserves against their deposits on a virtually contemporaneous
basis.1/ Weekly reporters are required to maintain average reserve balances over a 14-day
1/
Weekly reporters include domestic depository institutions with total reservable
liabilities greater than the exemption amount provided by the zero-reserve tranche,
currently $4.4 million, and total deposits at or above the deposit cut-off established for
institutions that are not fully exempt from reserve requirements, currently $75 million.
U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks and Edge and Agreement corporations,
regardless of their size, must report weekly.
Institutions that are not weekly reporters file deposit reports on either a
quarterly or annual basis, depending on the size of their total deposits and their total
reservable liabilities. This proposal will have no effect on those institutions.
-3reserve maintenance period that begins only two days after the beginning of the 14-day
computation period. 2/ The requirement for contemporaneous reserve maintenance was
implemented in 1984 to enhance the conduct of monetary policy by strengthening the
ability of the Board to control M1, the narrowest measure of the money supply, through
operations directed at the supply of reserves.3/
Since that time, however, the Federal Reserve's operating procedures have
changed and it no longer maintains target ranges for M1. Additionally, the use of
contemporaneous reserve maintenance requires depositories and the Federal Reserve to
estimate and project the quantity of reserves that will be needed to meet reserve
requirements during the current maintenance period. These estimates have become
increasingly difficult to formulate with any precision on a timely basis, in part because of
the implementation by many depository institutions of retail sweep programs. Such
programs have lowered required reserves for institutions that have implemented them and
have increased uncertainties regarding the reserve balances depository institutions must
hold at the Reserve Banks. For example, for some large institutions, required reserves are
sometimes above and sometimes below their holdings of vault cash, with the result that it
2/
In the past, the threshold deposit level for weekly reporters has been indexed to the
growth of total deposits and revised annually. As part of the Board's most recent review
of the deposit reporting forms, however, the threshold deposit level for weekly reporting
of deposits was raised to $ 75 million, effective as of the reporting week ending
September 15, 1997.
3/
See 47 FR 44705 (October 12, 1982).
-4is difficult to project reliably the extent to which reserves in excess of applied vault cash
will be required by these institutions.
The Board therefore is requesting comment on a proposal to amend
Regulation D to return to a system of lagged reserve requirements. Under the proposal, a
lag of thirty days (two full maintenance periods) would be introduced between the
beginning of a reserve computation period and the beginning of the maintenance period
during which reserves for that computation period must be maintained. The reserve
maintenance period therefore would not begin until seventeen days after the end of the
computation period. The proposal also provides for a two-period lag in the computation
of the vault cash to be applied to satisfy reserve requirements.4/ Providing a two-period
lag for both required reserves and applied vault cash will allow the Federal Reserve, as
well as the depository institutions, to calculate the level of required reserve balances
before the beginning of the maintenance period. The increased lag also should reduce the
level of resources that depository institutions and the Federal Reserve currently must
devote to estimating and projecting required reserve balances.
The Board's proposal will not affect the provisions of Regulation D
concerning the carryover of excess or deficiencies in a depository institution's reserve
account.
4/
Applied vault cash for an individual institution is equal to the lesser of total vault
cash or required reserves.
-5The Board proposes to implement the shift to a lagged reserve requirement
in July 1998. The Board believes that the transition to the new system could be made
most easily after completion of the changeover of software used by the Federal Reserve
to process most data flows, currently projected for March 1998, and prior to the annual
deposit panel shifts that will take place in September 1998.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601-612) requires an agency to
publish an initial regulatory flexibility analysis with any notice of proposed rulemaking.
An initial regulatory flexibility analysis must include: (1) a description of the reasons
why action by the agency is being considered; (2) a statement of the objectives of, and
legal basis for, the proposed rule; (3) a description of and, where feasible, an estimate of
the number of small entities to which the proposed rule will apply; (4) a description of
the projected reporting, recordkeeping, and other compliance requirements of the
proposed rule; and (5) an identification, to the extent practicable, of all relevant Federal
rules that may duplicate, overlap, or conflict with the proposed rules. 5 U.S.C. 603(b)
As discussed above, the Board is considering this action to improve the
ability of the Federal Reserve to estimate accurately the need for reserves on a timely
basis, with the objective of ensuring greater effectiveness of the Federal Reserve's open
market operations. Under section 19 of the Federal Reserve Act , the Board is authorized
-6to promulgate rules concerning the maintenance of reserves. 12 U.S.C. § 461(c). The
Board does not believe that there are any Federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or conflict
with the proposed rule.
The proposal will affect only institutions that are weekly deposit reporters,
which generally include depository institutions that have total deposits of $ 75 million or
greater, as only these institutions currently are required to maintain reserves on a
contemporaneous basis.5/ The proposed amendments will not increase reporting or
recordkeeping requirements associated with Regulation D for institutions that are weekly
reporters, but will significantly simplify compliance with the rule for these institutions.
The proposal therefore will not increase regulatory burden on small institutions generally
and will reduce regulatory burden for those small institutions that are affected.
List of Subjects in 12 CFR Part 204
Banks, banking, Federal Reserve System, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements.
For the reasons set out in the preamble, the Board proposes to amend part
204 of chapter II of title 12 of the Code of Federal Regulations as follows:
PART 204 -- RESERVE REQUIREMENTS OF DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS
(REGULATION D)
5/
While weekly reporters that are Edge or Agreement corporations or U.S. branches
or agencies of a foreign bank may have deposits of less than $75 million, the deposits of
these entities represent only a portion of the total deposits of the larger organizations to
which they belong.
-71. The authority citation for part 204 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 12 U.S.C. 248(a), 248(c), 371a, 461, 601, 611, and 3105.
2. In § 204.3, paragraph (c) is revised to read as follows:
§ 204.3 Computation and maintenance.
* * * * *
(c) Computation of required reserves for institutions that report on a weekly
basis. (1) Required reserves are computed on the basis of daily average balances of
deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities during a 14-day period ending every second
Monday (the "computation period"). Reserve requirements are computed by applying the
ratios prescribed in § 204.9 to the classes of deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities of the
institution. In determining the reserve balance that is required to be maintained with the
Federal Reserve, the average daily vault cash held during the computation period is
deducted from the amount of the institution's required reserves.
(2) The reserve balance that is required to be maintained with the Federal
-8Reserve shall be maintained during a 14-day period (the "maintenance period") that
begins on the third Thursday following the end of a given computation period.
* * * * *
By order of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,
November 6, 1997.
/signed/
William W. Wiles,
Secretary of the Board.
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P