The federal bank regulatory agencies on November 19 released an estimation tool to help community banks understand the potential effects of the recently revised regulatory capital framework on their capital ratios. The revised framework implements the Basel III regulatory capital reforms and certain changes required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. In July, the Federal Reserve Board and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved the revised capital framework as final rules, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved the revised capital framework as an interim final rule. The final rules and interim final rule are substantively identical.

The agencies also stated that “the estimation tool is not part of the revised capital framework and not a component of regulatory reporting. Results from the tool are simplified estimates that may not precisely reflect banks’ actual capital ratios under the framework. Additionally, banks should be aware that the estimation tool requires certain manual inputs that could have meaningful effects on results and should reference the revised capital framework when using the estimation tool.”

The estimation tool is available here.