Federal Home Loan Bank Capital Requirements
Federal Home Loan Bank Capital Requirements Final Rule
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Scott Smith, Associate Director, Division of Bank Regulation, Scott.Smith@FHFA.gov, 202-649-3193; Julie Paller, Principal Financial Analyst, Division of Bank Regulation, Julie.Paller@FHFA.gov, 202-649-3201; Neil R. Crowley, Deputy General Counsel, Neil.Crowley@FHFA.gov, 202-649-3055; or Vickie R. Olafson, Assistant General Counsel, Vickie.Olafson@FHFA.gov, 202-649-3025 (these are not toll-free numbers), Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20219. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services. Additionally, the TDD 1-(800) number referenced in Rulemaking documents attached to this page is obsolete and the 7-1-1 number should be used.
SUMMARY: The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing this final rule to adopt as its own portions of the regulations of the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) pertaining to the capital requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks). The final rule carries over most of the existing Finance Board regulations without material change, but substantively revises the credit risk component of the risk-based capital requirement, as well as the limitations on extensions of unsecured credit. The principal revisions to those provisions remove requirements that the Banks calculate credit risk capital charges and unsecured credit limits based on ratings issued by a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO), and instead require that the Banks use their own internal rating methodology. The final rule also revises the percentages used in the tables to calculate the credit risk capital charges for advances and non-mortgage assets. FHFA retains the percentages used in the existing table to calculate the capital charges for mortgage-related assets, but revises the approach to identify the 2 appropriate percentage within the table.
DATES: This rule is effective on January 1, 2020.