Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Notice of The Board's Supervision and Regulation Assessment for Year 2012

Section 318 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) directs the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) to collect assessments, fees, or other charges (assessments) from bank holding companies (BHCs) and savings and loan holding companies (SLHCs) with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets, and from nonbank financial companies designated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council pursuant to section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Act for supervision by the Board (collectively, "assessed companies") equal to the expenses the Board estimates are necessary or appropriate to carry out its supervision and regulation of those companies.

On August 23, 2013, the Board published in the Federal Register¹ the final rule to implement section 318, Regulation TT,² which became effective on October 25, 2013. Regulation TT provides that each calendar year is an assessment period and defines an assessed company as a company that, on December 31 of the assessment period: (1) is a BHC or SLHC with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets, determined based on the average of the BHC's or SLHC's total consolidated assets reported for the assessment period, or (2) is a nonbank financial company supervised by the Board.

This notice provides the pertinent information for the 2012 assessment. Refer to Regulation TT for all provisions related to supervision and regulation assessments for BHCs and SLHCs with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and nonbank financial companies supervised by the Board.

Assessment period: The 2012 assessment period is January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.

Assessed companies: An assessed company for the 2012 assessment period is a top-tier company³ that on December 31, 2012, is (1) a BHC with average total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more during the assessment period, (2) a SLHC with average total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more during the assessment period, or (3) a nonbank financial company supervised by the Board. The Board has determined that there are 72 assessed companies for the 2012 assessment period.

Assessment basis: The assessment basis is the amount of total expenses the Board estimates is necessary or appropriate to carry out the supervisory and regulatory responsibilities of the Board with respect to assessed companies.⁴ For the 2012 assessment, the assessment basis is the Board's estimate of 2012 expenses with respect to those companies determined to be assessed companies for the 2012 assessment period. The 2012 assessment basis will also be used for the 2013 assessment and the 2014 assessment.

For 2012, overall supervision and regulation and related operating expenses at the Federal Reserve Banks (Reserve Banks) and the Board totaled $1,553.9 million, comprised of $1,056.6 million in supervision and regulation operating expenses for the Reserve Banks and $497.4 million in supervision and regulation and related operating expenses for the Board. From these total supervision and regulation and related operating expenses, the Board estimates the portion of these operating expenses attributable to the assessed companies using the methodology described below.

The Reserve Banks' operating expenses are determined through a cost accounting system that provides uniform methods of accounting for expenses, allowing each Reserve Bank to determine the full cost of its and all Reserve Bank services. The activities involved in the supervision and regulation of assessed companies are used to identify the relevant expenses for the assessment basis. For example: employee-time data are analyzed to determine the amount of time employees spend supervising assessed companies, and this analysis along with other, similar analyses are used to allocate salaries and other personnel expenses. Operating expenses for the assessment basis include all expenses associated with the supervision and regulation of assessed companies, which are comprised primarily of personnel expenses, as well as those expenses for related administrative processes, support operations, and travel. Certain expenses associated with activities that cannot be directly attributed to assessed companies, but are integral to carrying out the supervisory responsibilities of the Reserve Banks, are added to the assessment basis on a proportional basis. For these expenses, the Board determines the proportion of expenses directly attributable to the supervision of those companies subject to assessment, relative to the expenses directly attributable to the supervision of all financial institutions supervised by the Board. This proportion is then applied to the expenses for the activities integral to carrying out the supervisory responsibilities of the Reserve Banks⁵ and the resulting proportion of expenses is included in the assessment basis.

For 2012, the Reserve Banks' proportion of expenses directly attributable to the supervision of assessed companies was $170.2 million, before indirect expenses. A dollar ratio allocation percentage of 34.4 percent was developed based on the Reserve Banks' directly attributable cost of supervising (direct and support) all financial institutions subject to Board supervision. This proportion (34.4 percent) is then applied to the $187.0 million for expenses integral to carrying out the supervisory responsibilities of the Reserve Banks, which adds $64.3 million before indirect expenses for these activities. In addition, the Board assigned to the assessment basis a proportional share of pension expenses of $60.2 million, and excluded $29.6 million for ECP and SNC expenses.⁶ The total estimated Reserve Bank operating expenses (direct, related, indirect, and pension expenses) attributed to the supervision and regulation of assessed companies for 2012 is $394.5 million.

With respect to the operating expenses of the Board, the Board groups all divisions into one of two categories for the purpose of determining the contribution to the assessment basis--those that perform supervision- and regulation-related activities with respect to assessed companies (direct) and those that provide support to supervision- and regulation-related activities (indirect). Divisions that are categorized as direct are Banking Supervision and Regulation, Consumer and Community Affairs, Research and Statistics, International Finance, Monetary Affairs, Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research, and Legal. The remaining divisions are classified as indirect based on the support they provide to the direct divisions, necessary for the continuation of normal operations.⁷ 

Similar to the employee-time data the Reserve Banks use to estimate operating expenses attributable to the supervision and regulation of assessed companies, the Board uses annual time surveys from employees in the direct divisions to determine the estimated proportion of time attributable to the supervision and regulation of assessed companies. For 2012, operating expenses of the direct divisions totaled $245.5 million, of which $29 million is directly attributable to the cost of supervising and regulating assessed companies. The employee-time survey data are also used to estimate the proportion of each direct division's non-personnel expenses, such as travel expenses, that is attributable to the supervision and regulation of assessed companies.

To determine the portion of the indirect divisions' expenses to be included in the assessment basis, the Board calculates the proportion of employee time in the direct divisions attributable to the supervision and regulation of assessed companies relative to the total employee time at the Board, which is then applied to the total expenses of the indirect divisions, and this portion of indirect division expenses is added to the assessment basis. For the 2012 assessment period, the indirect divisions' expenses totaled $251.9 million, of which 5.8 percent ($12.8 million) was added to the assessment basis. The Board also includes in the assessment basis a similarly calculated proportion of the Board's pension expenses, which for 2012 was $4.2 million. Thus, the total estimated Board operating expenses (direct, indirect, and pension expenses) attributed to the supervision and regulation of assessed companies for 2012 is $46 million.

In total, the Board estimates that the total expenses necessary or appropriate to carry out its supervision and regulation of assessed companies for 2012 is $440.5 million. The table below provides a summary of the Board's estimate of expenses for the 2012 assessment basis.

Total assessable assets: The assessment basis is apportioned to individual assessed companies in the form of assessments in an amount that is proportional with the relative asset size of each assessed company. Total assessable assets of assessed companies are generally calculated as (1) the average total consolidated assets during the assessment period of a U.S.-domiciled assessed company, or (2) the average total combined assets of U.S. operations during the assessment period for a foreign assessed company.

Assessment rate: The assessment rate for the 2012 assessment is calculated according to the following formula. The 2012 assessment rate will also be used for the 2013 assessment and 2014 assessment.

Assessment rate =   Assessment Basis – (Number of Assessed Companies x $50,000) 
                                         Total Assessable Assets of All Assessed Companies

For the 2012 assessment rate calculation, the assessment basis is $440.5 million, the number of assessed companies is 72, and the total assessable assets of all assessed companies is $19,558 billion, which results in the assessment rate of 0.00002234.

Assessment rate =   $440.5 million – (72 x $50,000)  =  0.00002234
                                            $19,558 billion

Assessment formula: The assessment formula used to determine each assessed company's assessment is the Base Amount ($50,000) + (Total Assessable Assets x Assessment Rate). The Board calculates each assessed company's assessment using this formula and provides the assessment amount, as well as each company's total assessable assets, in the notice of assessment.

Notice of assessment: For the 2012 assessment, the Board issued a notice of assessment to each assessed company on October 30, 2013.

Appeal period: Each assessed company has 30 calendar days from the Board's issuance of the notice of assessment to submit a written statement to appeal the Board's determination: (1) that the company is an assessed company; or (2) of the company's total assessable assets. For the 2012 assessment, the Board will respond, within 10 calendars days from the end of the appeal period, with the results of its consideration to any assessed company that submitted a written appeal.

Collection date: By December 15, 2013, each assessed company must remit to the Federal Reserve the amount of its assessment using the Fedwire Funds Service and the Fedwire instructions provided in the notice of assessment.

Payment of interest: If the Board does not receive the total amount of an assessed company's assessment by the collection date for any reason not attributable to the Board, the assessment will be delinquent and the assessed company shall pay to the Board interest on any sum owed to the Board according to this rule (delinquent payments). Interest on delinquent payments will be assessed beginning on the first calendar day after the collection date, and on each calendar day thereafter up to and including the day payment is received. Interest will be simple interest, calculated for each day payment is delinquent by multiplying the daily equivalent of the applicable interest rate by the amount delinquent. The rate of interest will be the United States Treasury Department's current value of funds rate (the "CVFR percentage"); issued under the Treasury Fiscal Requirements Manual and published quarterly in the Federal Register. Each delinquent payment will be charged interest based on the CVFR percentage applicable to the quarter in which all or part of the assessment goes unpaid.

Questions and other correspondence regarding assessments: All questions and correspondence regarding assessments, including appeals, should be sent to the following e-mail address: [email protected].

 

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1.  Link to the published rule: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-08-23/pdf/2013-20306.pdf. Return to text

2.  12 CFR 246. Return to text

3.  For multi-tiered BHCs and multi-tiered SLHCs in which a holding company owns or controls, or is owned or controlled by, other holding companies, the assessed company would be the top-tier, regulated holding company. In situations where two or more unaffiliated companies control the same U.S. bank or savings association and each company has average total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more, each of the unaffiliated companies will be designated an assessed company. Generally, a company has control over a bank, savings association, or company if the company has (a) ownership, control, or power to vote 25 percent or more of the outstanding shares of any class of voting securities of the bank, savings association, or company, directly or indirectly or acting through one or more other persons; (b) control in any manner over the election of a majority of the directors or trustees of the bank, savings association, or company; or (c) the Board determines the company exercises, directly or indirectly, a controlling influence over the management or policies of the bank, savings association, or company. See 12 U.S.C. 1841(a)(2) (BHCs) and 12 U.S.C. 1467a(a)(2) (SLHCs). Return to text

4.  The categories of operating expenses that the Board believes are necessary or appropriate include (1) direct operating expenses for supervising and regulating assessed companies such as conducting examinations, conducting stress tests, communicating with the company regarding supervisory matters and laws and regulations, etc.; and (2) operating expenses for activities integral to carrying out supervisory and regulatory responsibilities such as training staff in the supervisory function, research and analysis functions including library subscription services, collecting and processing regulatory reports filed by supervised institutions, etc. All operating expenses include applicable support, overhead, and pension expenses. Return to text

5.  Activities integral to carrying out the supervisory responsibilities of the Reserve Banks include staff training and education, supervision policy and projects, regulatory reports processing, and supervision and regulation automation services. Return to text

6.  The Board excludes from the assessment basis those expenses associated with its Examiner Commissioning Program (ECP), which involves the training of new examiners that are not typically employed in the supervision and regulation of assessed companies, and expenses associated with the Shared National Credit Program (SNC). Return to text

7.  The indirect divisions include the Office of Board Members, Office of the Secretary, Division of Financial Management, Information Technology, Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Office of the Chief Data Officer, the Management Division, and Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems. Return to text