Regulatory Roundup: IMPORTANT, NOT IMMINENT

CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS: The federal banking agencies are grappling with new and more accurate ways of setting capital requirements.

Two proposals are out for comment. The first, agreed upon by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, proposed letting banks use internal models to measure the risk associated with foreign exchange and other trading activities. These measurements would then be used by regulators to set required capital levels. Published by all the agencies July 25. Comments are due Sept. 18.

The second plan, issued solely by the Fed, would let banks decide for themselves how much capital to set aside for trading activities - and possibly pay fines if their losses exceed the capital cushion. Published July 25. Comments are due Nov. 1.

BANK POWERS: The OCC's proposal to let national banks conduct new activities through subsidiaries is on hold. Currently, nonbank products and services are offered through holding company subsidiaries, not bank units. The plan was proposed last November; comments were due in late January. The agency's approach counters several bills pending on Capitol Hill to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act but require banks to conduct securities activities in holding company subsidiaries.

RECOURSE II: The agencies are trying to come up with a comprehensive, credit-rating-based method for determining how much capital banks should have to hold against assets sold with recourse. An advance notice of proposed rulemaking was issued for comment in May 1994. Comments were due in July 1994. A more concrete proposal is due out before the end of this year.

PREMIUM BASE: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has taken the first step - an advance notice of proposed rulemaking - toward changing the way it calculates how much institutions should pay for deposit insurance.

The September 1994 proposal sought ideas for adding liabilities to the domestic deposits that now make up the assessment base or for converting the base to assets. Narrower changes that have been suggested include eliminating the current float and measuring domestic deposits by quarterly average.