On December 17, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (collectively, federal banking agencies) approved a notice requesting comment on the fourth and final set of regulatory categories as part of their review to identify outdated or unnecessary regulations applied to insured depository institutions. The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA) requires the federal agencies to review their regulations at least every 10 years. The federal agencies also are required to categorize and publish the regulations for comment, and submit a report to the US Congress that summarizes any significant issues raised by the comments and the relative merits of such issues. The agencies have divided their regulations into 12 categories and have requested comments for nine categories. The fourth and final notice seeks comment on regulations in three additional categories: (1) rules of procedure; (2) safety and soundness; and (3) securities. Comments will be accepted within 90 days after publication of the notice in the Federal Register, which is expected shortly. In addition, as previously announced by the agencies, the scope of the EGRPRA review has been expanded to cover newly issued regulations that were not included in prior EGRPRA categories or rules that will be issued by the year’s end. Accordingly, comments also are being requested on those final rules. Any final rules issued between the publication of the final Federal Register notice and the end of the year will be posted on the EGRPRA website. Comments on regulations in any of the 12 categories also will be accepted by the agencies during this final comment period.

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