The Federal Reserve board, FDIC, OCC and NCUA proposed to update rules governing administrative proceedings for financial institutions to allow the use of electronic communications and technology. The interagency proposal would update the uniform rules of practice and procedure that have largely remained unchanged since 1996.
In the proposal, The Fed said that by 2006, paper pleadings were virtually eliminated in administrative hearings but without rules in place to address electronic pleadings, the administrative law judges opted to dictate procedures regarding electronic filing and other items on an ad hoc basis in their scheduling orders.
The proposal would also remove remaining references to the Office of Thrift Supervision, which was abolished in 2011. Other changes include replacing gender references such as “him or her,” “his or her,” and “himself or herself” with gender neutral terminology and replacing the word “shall” in the rule with the terms “must,” “will,” or other appropriate language. Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
