WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department would begin to collect fees from large banks on July 20 to fund the Office of Financial Research and Financial Stability Oversight Council under a proposal published Tuesday.
The Dodd-Frank Act required Treasury to develop a program to collect assessments equal to the expenses of the OFR and FSOC, as well as the cost to implement the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s orderly liquidation authorities.
The proposal, published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, would impose fees on U.S. and foreign banks with more than $50 billion of assets, as well as nonbanks supervised by the Federal Reserve. The semiannual assessments, which begin on July 20, 2012, will be calculated by applying a flat rate to a company's total assets — or combined U.S. operations, in the case of foreign banks. The rate will be established about one month prior to the collection date.
Each round of assessments would replenish the Financial Research Fund to a level equivalent to six months of operating expenses, and 12 months of capital expenses for the OFR and FSOC, as well as certain covered FDIC expenses, according to Treasury.
The comment period is open for 60 days. Treasury plans to issue the final rule by the end of May, and announce the assessment rate in June.
