Regulatory Roundup: Action Expected Soon

FOREIGN BANKS: The Fed is expected to propose by March 31 a major overhauling of its rules governing foreign banks. The proposal would relax rules limiting the amount of income foreign banks may earn outside the United States from insurance and securities activities. It also would eliminate scores of duplicative filing requirements, and it would make it easier for foreign banks to expand their operations here. Release of the rule has been delayed several times as Fed officials worked on changing Regulation Y and the section 20 rules.

CALL REPORTS: The exam council is expected in late March or early April to vote on whether to require all banks to file call reports electronically. The three banking agencies had wanted to phase in electronic filing between June 30 and Dec. 31, depending on an institution's size, but they may push back the starting dates.

RECOURSE: The exam council's supervision task force is mulling a proposal that would reduce the amount of risk-based capital banks must hold against some assets sold with recourse. The plan, which regulators are expected to issue for comment by the end of the second quarter, also may require banks to hold more capital in recourse arrangements involving letters of credit, warranties, and other "direct credit substitutes."

Regulators have been grappling for nearly six years with the plan. The major cause of the delay: determining how much capital a bank must hold when pieces of its loan pool are securitized and sold to different buyers. An advance notice of proposed rulemaking was issued for comment in May 1994. Comments were due that July.