In Brief: Fed to Revamp Foreign Bank Reporting

The Federal Reserve Board is proposing to standardize two financial reports that foreign bank holding company subsidiaries file annually.

The Fed wants to require bankers filing the FR Y-7 and the FR-2068 reports to answer 35 detailed questions on capital adequacy, loans outstanding, assets, and income.

U.S. nonbanking subsidiaries with less than $150 million in assets could complete an abbreviated form.

The Fed also wants bankers to include a copy of the financial statement already filed with the Securities and Exchanges Commission. Foreign banks would have to explain their home country's accounting standards if they opt to use those rules over generally accepted accounting principles.

Finally, the central bank proposes eliminating the exemption from the FR-2068 for foreign banking organizations with small U.S. operations. In exchange, the Fed no longer would require bankers to disclose the other financial data they currently record on the reports. The Fed also eliminated FR-4002, which requires foreign banks to report what institutions they have acquired.

The industry has until Feb. 6 to comment on the proposal.