The Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the agencies) have revised the ICERC procedures and adjusted the criteria for applying ICERC ratings. As a result, the agencies are issuing a revised Guide to the Interagency Country Exposure Review Committee Process. The agencies revised the guide to reflect improvements in regulated institutions' cross-border exposure analyses and country risk management programs, as well as improvements in the availability of information on country and transfer risk. The agencies will now assign ICERC ratings only to those countries in default, and will eliminate several rating categories.

Reserve Banks should distribute this letter and the attached interagency guide to the appropriate officer of each bank holding company, state member bank, and banking Edge corporation in your District that files the Country Exposure Report (FFIEC 009), as well as to each U.S. branch and agency of a foreign banking organization supervised by the Federal Reserve. The revised guide should also be distributed to senior supervisory management and examination staff with responsibility for transfer risk issues.

Questions concerning this interagency guide should be directed to Sabeth Siddique, Assistant Director, Credit Risk, at (202) 452-3861, or Donald Gabbai, Senior Supervisory Financial Analyst, Credit Risk, at (202) 452-3358. In addition, questions may be sent via the Board's public website.¹