WASHINGTON - Institutions with large trust departments must start reporting income and expense data next year.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has completed a new rule requiring trust departments at banks and thrifts to report salaries and employee benefits, other direct expenses such as the cost of furniture, and allocated indirect expenses such as audit and examination fees.
Trust departments currently report the size of discretionary and nondiscretionary trust assets by account type.
The new rule largely mirrors a proposal issued for comment in June. Under one change, however, bankers must report instances where surcharges or the cost of settling customer disputes caused an account to lose more than $100,000. The earlier draft required institutions to report all losses, regardless of the amount.
Regulators interviewed Friday said they expect the data will help them analyze the risk management techniques used by trust departments. The information also will help the agencies gauge the departments' profitability.
The rule covers the 2,819 trust departments that manage more than $100 million in assets. These departments control 99% of the $10.6 billion held in trust at financial institutions.
Most departments must collect the data starting Jan. 1, though the agencies said they may require some institutions to report for 1995 as well.
The rule was approved Dec. 14, but as of late Friday the agencies had not released it to the public. The agencies said they would keep the reports confidential, though they pledged to annually release aggregate data.
