2015-08611. Agency Information Collection Activities: Information Collection Renewal; Comment Request; Guidance on Stress Testing for Banking Organizations With More than $10 Billion in Total Consolidated Assets

AGENCY:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury (OCC).

ACTION:

Notice and request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, the OCC may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

The OCC is soliciting comment concerning renewal of its information collection titled, “Guidance on Stress Testing for Banking Organizations with more than $10 Billion in Total Consolidated Assets.”

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before June 15, 2015.

ADDRESSES:

Because paper mail in the Washington, DC area and at the OCC is subject to delay, commenters are encouraged to submit comments by email, if possible. Comments may be sent to: Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Attention: 1557-0312, 400 7th Street SW., Suite 3E-218, Mail Stop 9W-11, Washington, DC 20219. In addition, comments may be sent by fax to [phone] or by electronic mail to [e-mail]. You may personally inspect and photocopy comments at the OCC, 400 7th Street SW., Washington, DC 20219. For security reasons, the OCC requires that visitors make an appointment to inspect comments. You may do so by calling [phone]. Upon arrival, visitors will be required to present valid government-issued photo identification and submit to security screening in order to inspect and photocopy comments.

All comments received, including attachments and other supporting materials, are part of the public record and subject to public disclosure. Do not include any information in your comment or supporting materials that you consider confidential or inappropriate for public disclosure.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mary H. Gottlieb, [phone], for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, TTY, [phone], Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 400 7th Street SW., Suite 3E-218, Mail Stop 9W-11, Washington, DC 20219.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. “Collection of information” is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c) to include agency requests or requirements that members of the public submit reports, keep records, or provide information to a third party. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)) requires Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To comply with this requirement, the OCC is publishing notice of the proposed collection of information set forth in this document.

The OCC is proposing to extend OMB approval of the following information collection:

Title: Recordkeeping and Disclosure Provisions Associated with Stress Testing Guidance.

OMB Control No.: 1557-0312.

Description: Each banking organization should have the capacity to understand its risks and the potential impact of stressful events and circumstances on its financial condition.^[1] On May 17, 2012, the OCC, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (FRB), published guidance on the use of stress testing as a means to better understand the range of a banking organization's potential risk exposures.^[2] The OCC is now seeking to renew the information collection associated with that guidance.

The guidance provides an overview of how a banking organization should structure its stress testing activities to ensure they fit into the banking organization's overall risk management. The purpose of the guidance is to outline broad principles for a satisfactory stress testing framework and to describe the manner in which stress testing should be used, that is as an integral component of risk management applicable at various levels of aggregation within a banking organization, as well as a tool for capital and liquidity planning. While the guidance is not intended to provide detailed instructions for conducting stress testing for any particular risk or business area, it does describe several types of stress testing activities and how they may be most appropriately used by banking organizations. The guidance also does not explicitly address the stress testing requirements imposed upon certain companies by section 165(i) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.^[3]

Type of Review: Regular.

Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 50.

Estimated annual burden: 13,000 hours.

Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized and included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on:

(a) Whether the collections of information are necessary for the proper performance of the OCC's functions, including whether the information has practical utility;

(b) The accuracy of the OCC's estimates of the burden of the information collections, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

(c) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected;

(d) Ways to minimize the burden of information collections on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and

(e) Estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information.

Dated: April 9, 2015.

Mary H. Gottlieb,

Regulatory Specialist, Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division.

Footnotes

1.  For purposes of this guidance, the term “banking organization” means national banks and Federal branches and agencies supervised by the OCC; state member banks, bank holding companies, and all other institutions for which the FRB is the primary Federal supervisor; and state nonmember insured banks and other institutions supervised by the FDIC.

2.  77 FR 29458 (May 17, 2012).

3.  Pub. L. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376. Section 165(i) of the Dodd-Frank Act is codified at 12 U.S.C. 5365(i)(2).