At the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yesterday announced new standards that mortgage institutions would have to meet in order to sell loans to or service loans on behalf of the housing GSEs. The new standards include net worth, capital and liquidity requirements both for depository institutions and for nonbanks.

ABA last week filed its second comment letter in response to the decennial EGRPRA regulatory burden review that the federal banking agencies must conduct.

Speaking at an industry event in Washington, D.C., today, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo floated an idea originated by ABA and the state bankers associations to relieve compliance burdens associated with capital rules. “One idea I have heard is to allow smaller community banks to opt into a simpler set of risk-weighted capital requirements in exchange for a higher minimum ...

Americans are eager for products and brands that are local, handcrafted, neighborly. This, Joshua Siegel writes, is an opportunity for community banks.

Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen yesterday responded to a letter several House members sent last fall urging regulators to resolve a problem for Subchapter S banks posed by Basel III’s capital conservation buffer. Yellen declined to pursue any policy change, stating that the Fed “continues to believe that the capital conservation buffer should be applied equally to all banking organizations.”

The banking agencies should use an advance notice of proposed rulemaking process to formally solicit public and congressional input prior to engaging in international standard-setting discussions, ABA said in a letter to regulators Monday.

The Federal Reserve should withdraw its proposed capital surcharge for the largest U.S.-based global systemically important banks, ABA said in a comment letter Friday.

The OCC on Friday released revised and reorganized guidance for subordinated debt issued by national banks and federal savings associations.