Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Notice of the Board's Supervision and Regulation Assessment for Year 2019

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 ("nonbank financial company supervised 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.

In 2018, Section 401(c) of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act ("EGRRCPA") raised the size threshold for assessments for BHCs and SLHCs from $50 billion to $100 billion in total consolidated assets. Therefore, BHCs and SLHCs with total consolidated assets between $50 billion and $100 billion were no longer subject to assessments starting in 2018. The Board has published a proposed rule that would reflect this change and implement other assessment related provisions in section 401(c) of EGRRCPA and intends to finalize the rule in the near future.

This notice provides the pertinent information for the 2019 assessment. Refer to the Federal Reserve Act and Regulation TT¹ for the relevant underlying provisions related to assessments.

Assessment period: The 2019 assessment period is January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019.

Assessed companies: An assessed company for the 2019 assessment period is a top-tier company² that on December 31, 2019, is (1) a BHC with average total consolidated assets of $100 billion or more during the assessment period, (2) a SLHC with average total consolidated assets of $100 billion or more during the assessment period, or (3) a nonbank financial company supervised by the Board. The Board has determined that there are 54 assessed companies for the 2019 assessment period.

Assessment basis: As provided for in Regulation TT, the assessment basis is the three-year average of 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 for that assessment period and the two prior assessment periods.³ Below is the description of how the 2019 assessment basis was calculated.

The Board does not determine costs for supervising and regulating assessed companies on a firm-by-firm basis. Instead, each year, the total amount of costs associated with overseeing assessed companies is estimated through the use of a cost accounting process and time surveys. When EGRRCPA became law in May 2018, it was too far into the year to adjust the relevant accounting procedures to reflect the change in definition of an assessed company to exclude costs associated with firms between $50 and $100 billion in total consolidated assets. Therefore, the Board's estimation of costs to oversee assessed institutions for 2017 and 2018 includes costs for all companies with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets. All numbers presented in the 2017 and 2018 tables below are reflective of the cost basis published for that year which include the costs for firms with total consolidated assets of $50 to $100 billion. In 2019 the cost accounting process and time surveys were changed to reflect this threshold change.

Because the cost basis for 2017 and 2018 are not directly comparable to the cost basis for 2019, the Board used a proxy to estimate the expenses related to supervising firms between $50 and $100 billion in total consolidated assets. These estimated expenses were removed from the respective yearly cost totals for 2017 and 2018, and a three-year average was calculated using the adjusted totals and is presented on pages 8 and 9.

For 2017, 2018, and 2019 overall supervision and regulation and related operating expenses at the Reserve Banks and the Board totaled $2,073.8, $2,163.1, and $2,261.5 million, composed of, $1,366.0, $1,424.2, and $1,473.0 million in supervision and regulation operating expenses for the Federal Reserve Banks ("Reserve Banks") and $707.8, $738.9, and $788.5 million in supervision and regulation and related operating expenses for the Board, respectively. 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 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. This analysis, along with other similar analyses, is used to allocate salaries and other personnel expenses.

The total estimated Reserve Bank operating expenses (direct, indirect, and pension expenses) attributed to the supervision and regulation of BHCs and SLHCs ($50 billion or more in total consolidated assets in 2017 and 2018 and $100 billion or more in total consolidated assets in 2019) and nonbank financial company supervised by the Board for 2017, 2018, and 2019 were, respectively, $552.6, $539.6, and $581.4 million. The Reserve Banks' expenses directly attributable to the supervision of these companies were $210.8, $202.4, and $208.0 million. Expenses for support and overhead attributable to the supervision of these companies (indirect expenses) were $101.9, $105.0, and $107.5 million. A proportional share of Reserve Banks' expenses for other activities integral to supervisory activities⁴ are also included in the assessment basis. These proportions⁵ were applied to the direct and indirect components of activities integral to supervisory responsibilities, which resulted in an additional $116.1, $116.4, and $122.7 million of direct expenses and $86.4, $88.4, and $97.9 million of indirect expenses in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. The proportional share of the Reserve Banks' pension expenses was also added to the assessment basis. In 2017, 2018, and 2019 these amounts were $64.1, $55.9, and $76.6 million, respectively. Excluded from the assessment basis in 2017, 2018, and 2019 were $26.7, $28.4, and $31.5 million, respectively, for Examiner Commissioning Program (ECP) and Shared National Credit Program (SNC) expenses.⁶

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 Supervision and Regulation, Consumer and Community Affairs, Research and Statistics, International Finance, Monetary Affairs, Financial Stability, and Legal. The remaining divisions are classified as indirect based on the support, necessary for the continuation of normal operations, they provide to the direct divisions.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 2017, 2018, and 2019, operating expenses of the direct divisions totaled $357.3, $375.6, and $391.7 million, respectively, of which 10.7 percent ($38.2 million), 10.3 percent ($38.6 million), and 9.2 percent ($36.2 million) respectively, 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, attributable to the supervision and regulation of these 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 these companies relative to the total employee time at the Board. This percentage 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 2017, 2018, and 2019 the indirect divisions' expenses totaled $350.5, and $363.3, and $396.7 million, respectively, with corresponding expense ratios of 5.2 percent ($18.1 million), 5.1 percent ($18.6 million), and 4.6 percent ($17.9 million). The Board also includes in the assessment basis a similarly calculated proportion of the Board's pension expenses, which for 2017, 2018, and 2019 was $3.3, $2.9, and $3.1 million, respectively. Thus, the total estimated Board operating expenses (direct, indirect and pension expenses) attributed to the supervision and regulation of assessed BHCs and SLHCs and nonbank financial companies supervised by the Board for 2017, 2018, and 2019, were, $59.6, $60.1, and $57.2 million, respectively

The Board estimates that the total costs necessary or appropriate to carry out its supervision and regulation of assessed companies for 2017, 2018, and 2019 were $612.2, $599.7, and $638.6 million, respectively. For the 2019 assessment period, the assessment basis is $608.1 million, the three-year average as described on pages 8 and 9. This represents a $22.3 million, or 3.8 percent, increase from the 2018 assessment basis. The tables below provide a summary of the Board's estimate of expenses for 2017, 2018, and 2019.

2017 Actual Data

2018 Actual Data

2019 Actual Data

Modified Three-year Average

Previously, the Board provided an estimate of the percentage that the assessment basis would increase or decrease for the following assessment period. The Board is unable to provide an estimate of the 2020 assessment basis at this time due to the changes associated with the EGRRCPA changes described above. The Board has published a proposed rule implementing these changes and intends to finalize the rule in the near future.

For 2017 and 2018, the Board used a proxy to estimate the expenses related to supervising firms between $50 and $100 billion in total consolidated assets. In 2017, this cost was estimated to be $15.9 million for the 10 firms within this range. For the 8 firms within this range in 2018, the cost attributed to these firms was estimated to be $10.1 million. These estimates were subtracted from the cost totals in the respective year and a three-year average calculated using the adjusted totals.

Assessment Rate: As provided in Regulation TT, to calculate the assessment rate for the 2019 assessment period, the Board used the formula below:⁸

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

For the 2019 assessment rate calculation, the assessment basis was $608.1 million, the number of BHCs and SLHCs with $100 billion or more in total consolidated assets and nonbank financial company supervised by the Board was 54, and the total assessable assets of these companies was $19,001 billion, which results in the assessment rate of 0.00003186.

Assessment rate = $608.1 million – (54 x $50,000) = 0.00003186
$19,001 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).⁹ The Board calculated each assessment using this formula and provided the assessment amount, as well as each company's total assessable assets, in the notice of assessment.

Total Assessable Assets: 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.¹⁰

Notice of Assessment: For the 2019 assessment, the Board issued a notice of assessment to each assessed company on June 27, 2020.

Appeal Period: Each assessed company will have thirty calendar days from June 30, 2020, 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 2019 assessment period, the Board will respond with the results of its consideration to an assessed company that has submitted a written appeal within 15 calendar days from the end of the appeal period.

Collection date: Each assessed company must remit to the Federal Reserve the amount of its assessment using the Fedwire Funds Service by September 15, 2020. The Board will provide Fedwire instructions 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 Regulation TT (delinquent payments).¹¹ 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 email address: [email protected].

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