FDIC examinations are seeing far fewer write-ups of Matters Requiring Board Attention, the agency said in the summer issue of its Supervisory Insights publication released today, although corporate governance-related MRBAs are on the rise. The share of FDIC exam reports at satisfactorily rated banks that include MRBAs has fallen from 55 percent in 2011 to 36 percent in 2015.
MRBAs are down substantially for lending-related issues, although MRBAs related to concentration risk are more prevalent than before within the loan category. “Bank management is generally responsive to addressing weaknesses identified in the MRBAs,” the FDIC said. “In about 70 percent of the MRBAs reported in 2014 and 2015 examinations, bank management sufficiently addressed problem areas in the first response.”
However, MRBAs have increased substantially over the past five years for board and management issues; more than half of satisfactory exam reports in 2014 and 2015 included a governance-related MRBA. Nearly half of the board or management MRBAs addressed policies, with other large shares focusing on audit and strategic planning. MRBAs have also risen for liquidity and Bank Secrecy Act issues.
This issue of Supervisory Insights also included a look at the lack of de novo activity in the banking industry and a defense of how the FDIC has handled de novo charter applications in recent years, as well as a regulatory and supervisory roundup.