Aug 11 -- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) invite comments to OMB by September 12, 2022 regarding the extension of and revisions to the Country Exposure Report (FFIEC 009) and the Country Exposure Information Report (FFIEC 009a).
The Country Exposure Report (FFIEC 009) is filed quarterly with the agencies and provides information on international claims of U.S. banks, savings associations, Edge and/or Agreement corporations, bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, and U.S. intermediate holding companies of foreign banking organizations (collectively, U.S. banking organizations) that is used for supervisory and analytical purposes. The information is used to monitor the foreign country exposures of reporting institutions to determine the degree of risk in their portfolios and assess the potential risk of loss. The Country Exposure Information Report (FFIEC 009a) is a supplement to the FFIEC 009 and provides publicly available information on material foreign country exposures (i.e., all exposures to a foreign country in excess of 1 percent of total assets or 20 percent of total capital, whichever is less) of U.S. banking organizations that file the FFIEC 009 report. As part of the FFIEC 009a, reporting institutions also must furnish a list of countries in which they have lending exposures above 0.75 percent of total assets or 15 percent of total capital, whichever is less.
This information is critical in determining and monitoring the soundness of national banks, state-chartered banks and banking organizations conducting business worldwide. A number of borrowers in other countries have experienced difficulties in paying the loans granted to them by U.S. national banks. This inability to pay, or a delay in repayment, can impair a bank's liquidity, affect a bank's market rating and acceptability, and thus, adversely affect its access to and cost of funding and capital, and can affect a bank's earnings.
The Country Exposure Report (FFIEC 009) is used by the OCC to monitor overseas exposure of U.S. banks in individual countries. The OCC and the other Federal financial institutions regulators (the agencies) use the report to analyze trends in overseas lending by individual U.S. banks and the U.S. banking system as a whole. The data are preliminary indicators of relative levels of risk undertaken by individual banks and serve as a crucial tool in the examination process. The reported data are essential for research, bank supervision and policy formulation within the agencies.
The Federal Reserve Board makes this information available in aggregate form to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS periodically issues data on the overall indebtedness of various countries throughout the world. The data abstracted from the Country Exposure Report are uniquely valuable to the BIS since it provides insight on short-term indebtedness of various countries owed to U.S. banks, which is not available from other sources. BIS data are utilized by banks, governments, and analysts in determining the total debt burden of various countries. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issues a quarterly release, which displays the aggregate amounts reported by respondent banks. This information is used by banks, government agencies, and analysts.
The Country Exposure Information Report (FFIEC 009a) is used by the OCC for examination purposes. Further, the information is disclosed to the public via the FFIEC’s Internet Website (
http://www.ffiec.gov/E16.htm) and on request. This information provides bank depositors, other creditors, and investors a better understanding of an individual national bank’s foreign exposures.
FFIEC - Statistical Releases E.16 Country Exposure Lending Survey and Country Exposure Information Report:
https://www.ffiec.gov/E16.htm
Country Exposure Reports:
https://www.ffiec.gov/forms009_009a.htm
Submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202207-1557-003 Click on IC List for collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this site.
FR notice inviting public comment:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-17229
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806