United States
April 6, 2020

US federal agencies announce changes to the Community Bank Leverage Ratio

The federal bank regulators have announced the issuance of two interim final rules to provide temporary relief to community banking organizations.    The rules will modify the community bank leverage ratio framework so that: beginning in the second quarter 2020 and until the end of the year, a banking organization
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April 4, 2020

Final implementation phases of margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives deferred

The Basel Committee and the International Organization of Securities Commissions have deferred the final two implementation phases of the framework for margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives by one year.    Covered entities with an aggregate average notional amount (AANA) of non-centrally cleared derivatives greater than €50 billion will now
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April 1, 2020

Canada: Capital treatment of federal programs to support COVID-19 efforts

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has directed on how deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) should treat new capital they make available to small and medium-sized enterprises through recently announced government programs.   The capital treatment for each program is as follows:   i) Canada Emergency Business Account: DTIs
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February 3, 2020

Germany: BaFin reduces countercyclical buffer rate to zero percent

BaFin has reduced the countercyclical buffer rate to zero percent effective April 1, 2020.   According to the regulator, the rate reduction is aimed to strengthen the resilience of the banking system in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.   Photo Credit: Pixabay
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January 19, 2020

Canada: Prudential regulator consults on tailored capital and liquidity requirements for small banks

The Canadian prudential regulator (OSFI) has published a consultative document on advancing proportionality in the capital and liquidity regime for small and medium-sized banks.    The document includes an overview of feedback that OSFI received in response to its July 2019 discussion paper.   The document also outlines changes that
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